


The Story of Us

by newromanticsstory



Category: Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: Gen, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Motherhood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2019-10-23 14:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 27,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17685110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newromanticsstory/pseuds/newromanticsstory
Summary: After fifteen years of not knowing who her mother was, Charlie Davis discovers that her mother is some a big deal and pretty famous. When she finds out it's Taylor Swift, she seeks her out for a better life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Taylor won't be around for a while, maybe three chapters at least. So bear with me. 
> 
> Oh and this is a complete work of fiction and nothing like this actually happened. I’ve twisted reality a bit and made everything actually work. All characters, with the exception of anyone famous, are original creations and any resemblance to actual people is an accident. All famous people mentioned in here are based on the way that the media portrays them.
> 
> This will be updated every other day.

Charlie Davis pushed her hair out of her face and put her hair up in a ponytail as she sat outside of Campbell Hall field hockey fields, which were located behind one of the most prestigious private schools in Los Angeles, waiting for her father to pick her up from practice. He was late as always, but it was fine because late for him was a common thing. When you own one of the biggest PR companies in all of Hollywood and in the entertainment industry, you had the right to be late to everything, but this was getting ridiculous mainly because at times she as forced to take an Uber home when the security guards told her that she had to leave because of the fact that the campus was closed for the evening.

She watched as all her teammates got picked up after practice and while she had rides offered, she refused them, because of the fact that she had plans after practice. Her father promised that they would go out to dinner, something that they haven’t done in the past few months because he had been so busy with work and always was in rush in the morning because he always had some kind of meeting that was far more important than his daughter. But now, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.

“See ya Charlie,” one of her teammates said as she walked to her car. Before she could say something, her phone went off. She pulled her phone out of her bag and sighed as she read the text that she got. “Jenn,” she called out to the girl that had just walked passed her. “Can you give me a ride home? He’s gonna be late as always because some major client just came into the office.” Jenn, her best friend, smiled and waved her over. “Typical,” she said as she started the car and waited for her to put her stuff in the trunk of her car. “Did he cancel dinner too?” Charlie shook her head. “No, not yet,” she said. “Thankfully it’s just a meeting not a client and that’s it. He’s gonna be home quickly.” Jenn laughed. The two of them had been friends and even Jenn knew what it was like to have Marc as a dad. He was far more concerned with his business than his family life.

“Like the time that he was going to be home quickly for your birthday a few years ago,” she teased as she opened the truck and put her stuff in. “And it turned into an overnight stay in San Diego. Come on Charlie, you know he’s gonna cancel on you at the last minute like he always does. His job is more important than you are and we both know that. Do you want me to come stay the night or not.” Charlie rolled her eyes, but knew that she was right though. Her father was always putting his job before her, but she had gotten used to that. It was the life that she was born into. She was the product of a teenage romance and her father raised her after her mother’s parents said that she couldn’t keep her. Over the course of the fourteen years that she had been alive, she had gotten used to playing second fiddle to her father’s job.

“Well tonight he promised that he would not let work get in the way of everything,” Charlie said as she pushed her stuff. “But he could get tied up and have to work late. So no, I don’t need you to stay the night, right after you drop me off, he should be home” Jenn rolled her eyes and drove off. They both knew that he was going to cancel, but neither of them wanted to admit it. This was a daily occurrence for the both of them. Charlie wanted to be confident and Jenn didn’t want her friend to lose her faith in the fact that her father wouldn’t cancel, but deep inside, they both knew what was going to happen. He was going to cancel at the last minute like he always does.

*

As Jenn pulled up in front of Charlie’s house, Charlie perked up a bit. “Well he hasn’t texted me a yet,” she said to Jenn. “So it’s still on.” Jenn started laughed and turned into the drive way and put the code in. “I’m sure that he’ll be here, but don’t get your hopes up,” she said.

As the pulled in front of the house that Marc, her father, liked to call “The Getaway,” mainly because of the fact that it felt like a vacation home more than a full time home, a text went off. Charlie looked at her phone and smiled. “He’s on his way,” she said. “Told you so.” Jenn laughed and then smiled. “Well, have a good time,” she said. “And has anyone told you that you look like Taylor Swift by with darker hair when you wear your hair like that?” Charlie blushed. Her hair was naturally curly, so when she didn’t do it, it looked like Taylor Swift when she was just starting out. “Everyone,” she said. “All the time too.” She closed the door and walked toward the house. “Let’s hang out after school tomorrow since we’re not going to have practice,” Jenn said. Charlie didn’t say anything and just gave her a thumbs up. It had been forever since they had actually hung out, and it would be good if things fell through. Charlie watched as Jenn drove off. As she closed the door, she slumped down and sighed a bit. The truth was that her father had canceled again because of work and that she was going to be alone. As she went to go upstairs, a knock was heard at the door. Before she had the chance to answer it herself, Jenn pushed it opened, causing her to jump up.

“Let me guess,” she said as she walked in when a duffle bag over her shoulder. “He canceled on you because of the fact that the client meeting turned into dinner and now you’re on your own.” All Charlie did was nod. She was surprised that Jenn figured that she had been stood up again by her father again just by her body language. “How did…” Charlie started to ask as Jenn held up one hand.

“You don’t talk after he tells you he can’t make it,” she told her. “You’re not being alone tonight Charlie, especially because it’s so close to your birthday.” Charlie teared up a bit. 15 was supposed to be a big year for her, but with the way that it was going, it seemed that it was going to it wasn’t going to be what she wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Work/life got in the way. Next update will be Tuesday

“Alright daddy,” Charlie said. “I’ll see you tomorrow then… Love you too” Charlie rolled her eyes and ended her phone call with her father. As she walked into the kitchen, she grabbed a piece of pizza from the box and went to join Jenn on the couch. It was they typical apology phone call that he did once a week and pretended to be sorry that he couldn’t be there, when in reality, he was happy that he was going out and not coming home until after Charlie was asleep so that he didn’t have to deal with her.

“He says you can spend the night if you want,” she told Jenn. “He’s probably gonna be back late, so he’s glad you stayed or at least that’s what he’s telling me.” Jenn smirked and flipped through the channels, stopping on an interview of Taylor Swift, causing the both of them to shift their gaze toward the TV. Jenn screamed so loud during one of the Rose Bowl stops that she couldn’t speak for a week, making Charlie jealous that she wasn’t a loud to go.

“Thank god it’s Friday,” she said. “My parents weren’t going to be home anyway, so it all balances out.” As they sat there, Jenn turned up the TV. The interviewer was talking to Taylor about her life post to and the possibility of ending her career.

“Well,” Taylor started. “My career isn’t ending per say. I’m just going to take some time off and work with Big Machine so that they can put out the greatest hits album that they want to put out. But after that, I don’t know where I’m going to land. My contract with Big Machine is ending, so maybe my career is too.” Charlie and Jenn laughed as they heard this. They both knew that she wasn’t going to stop and this was going to by a ploy to get more album sales when she signed with a new label.

“You know if she retires, she just gonna write songs for everyone,” Jenn said and Charlie nodded. “Of course she will,” she said. “She’s one of the best song writers out that and why should retire anyway? It’s not like she’s going to really stop anyway. She’s gonna record a new album with a new label you and I both know that.” As they listened to the interview, Jenn sat up and looked over at Charlie. “Do you remember what I said to you earlier when you were in your haze of upsetness,” she asked. “You really look like Taylor when she was younger.”

Charlie looked over at Jenn and blushed a bit. “I guess I do,” she said embarrassed. “I mean the only difference between her and I is that my eyes are a different color and my hair is darker than her’s.” Charlie had green eyes like her father while Taylor had blue, but everything else, from the kind of hair that she had, although it was a dark brown, to the fact that she was taller than most girls in her grade, at first glance, you could mistake her for Taylor in a wig, as if she was trying to hide from photographers. “I mean there’s some differences, but it’s a bit uncanny of how similar we look.”  
Jenn then turned the TV off and looked over at Charlie. She had debated on going back to the question that she asked a few weeks ago and at first, she didn’t want to, but since they weren’t doing anything, it felt right.

“Did you ever ask you dad about your mom yet,” she asked. “You keep saying that you’re going to do that so that we can start looking for her. My uncle the PI said that he wouldn’t charge us if you really wanted to pursue looking for her.”

Charlie looked away and sighed. She had been asking Marc for months if she could just have a name, but he refused as if he was trying to hide something from her. She was the product of a teenage pregnancy and her mother’s parents tried to give her up for adoption, but at the last minute, her grandparents stepped in and helped Marc raise her or at least that’s the story that she was told. Now that she was getting older, she was starting to think that is was a line and wanted to find her mother, but without her father giving her the proper information, it was a dead end.

“He told me the other day when I asked him that I should drop it,” she said with a sigh. “And that she’s never going to want to see me because her parents told him that she wanted to put me up for adoption.” Jenn shook her head. “That’s not a good enough reason,” she said. “You father is hiding something from you. Something that’s so huge that he doesn’t want you to find out. Do you know where he keeps your birth certificate?” Charlie looked at her and shook her head. “I only saw it once when I got my passport and that was years ago,” she said. “I think he came of his office with it.

Jenn then got up and smiled. “Then let’s start there,” she said. As she walked toward the home office that Marc kept at the back of the house, Charlie grabbed her arm and stopped her. “You know that I’m not supposed to go in there,” Charlie said and caused Jenn to laugh. “He’s not here and besides that, he told you months ago that you can go in there any time you want to use his computer to do homework, so if he asks that’s what we were doing.” Charlie nodded and the followed Jenn into her father’s office.

Charlie always questioned his father’s decorating choices. While it did have an adult feel to it, she never understood why he decorated his space with vinyl toys. Jenn shut the door, looked around. “Check the filing cabinets and I’ll check the desk,” Jenn said. “It’s gotta be in here somewhere.” Jenn started opening anything she could; digging through stuff that Charlie’s father had saved for years. It was amazing to see what he saved over the years. “Look,” Jenn said as she held up a picture of Charlie at Disney world. “What happened to the cute little girl in this photo?” Charlie snatched the picture out of her hand. “She turned into the heart breaker that you see in front of you,” Charlie said as she stuck out her tongue.

Jenn laughed and then paused. She looked across the room and saw something that she had never seen before. Out of all the times that they sat at the desk in Marc’s office, she never noticed the filing cabinet that was across from his desk. “What’s up with the filing cabinet,” Jenn asked. “I don’t think that that I’ve ever noticed it before.” Charlie turned around and shrugged. It was a three draw cabinet that her father always had in here. It wasn’t anything important. Just a normal filing cabinet that he carried from house to house over the years that was always in the office. “It’s nothing special,” Charlie said as she looked at it. “It’s just something that follows around from house to house. My father must be attached to it or something but he never puts anything in it that I know of.”

Jenn walked over and looked at it. Charlie was right, there was nothing special about it. Marc had put stickers on it to hide the various dents in it from moving it over the years, but that was the only thing that was interesting about it. He even left the keys in it because he figured that no one would ever go in there. As she look at the labels on it, she stepped back as she got to the bottom.

“If there’s nothing special about it, then why are your initials on the bottom draw.” Charlie pushed Jenn out of the way to see what she was talking about and was surprised to see that here initials, ‘CMD,’ standing for Charlotte Marie Davis, were on the draw. She was shocked and couldn’t believe that it had been there for some long and she never noticed it. “Do you think it’s in there,” she asked Jenn. “Only one way to find out,” Jenn said. She reached past Charlie and pulled the draw opened. “Let’s seen,” Jenn said as she hunched over the draw. “Campbell Hall, the Rainey School, trust fund,… and here it is.” Jenn pulled a folder out that read ‘birth certificate’ and held it up. “Found it.” They walked over to the desk and placed the folder there. Charlie really didn’t want to open it. What if what they were looking for wasn’t there? “Open it,” Jenn said. “We came this far not to.”

She slowly pulled out the document and then read it. “Name: Charlotte Grace Davis…” Jenn and Charlie looked at each other. For years her father had called her Charlotte Marie. “This has to be a mistake,” Jenn said. She leaned and tried to figure if it was altered or not. “I don’t think so,” Charlie said. “He called me Charlotte Grace once by accident and he tried to recover, but did it horribly, so I think he’s lying to me.” She looked down the list and kept reading. “DOB: 5/16/03. Place of birth: Tristar Medical Center, Hendersonville, Tenn, Father: Marc G. Davis, Mother:…” she stopped. Jenn shook her shoulders.

Who,” she asked. “Unknown.” Charlie slipped the document and the envelope back into the draw and closed it. She then looked and Jenn and started to cry. “Oh Charlie,” Jenn said as she hugged her. “It’s alright. Something will come up. I promise.” But it was too late. As she heard the file cabinet click closed, she knew that there was no way for finding out who was her mother was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning:
> 
> There is a bit of physical abuse here. So if this isn't your thing, please don't read. I don't condone any of it. If you want to send me a message, please feel free to and I'll summarize it the best I can.

The first half of the next week was a nightmare for Charlie. Both field hockey games that she played in had resulted in less than spectular performances from both her and her team, she had eaten dinner alone all week because her father was busy taking clients out to dinner all week, and of course school just sucked because it was almost the end of the year and that didn’t mean midterms, but pointless PARC testing, which even the teachers didn’t know what the point of it was and had no idea why they had to do it for that matter because even they didn’t want to do it. But by the time Wednesday had rolled around, she start to become her old self and things were good again and things finally got back to normal.

Thursday meant that her birthday was just two days away and while her father wasn’t going to be home, like he was every year, at least she was going to spend it with Jenn and her parents. That meant they would go somewhere she wanted to go and not a place that she thought that her father would like. And while that was good, something else was bothering her all week. 

Charlie started to think about who her mother was more and more. Ever since she found her birth certificate, she started to dig more and more into who her mother could be. She even went as far as looking through her father’s year book, trying to find the girl who would look like her, but she had no luck, because the class was so large.

She knew that they were sophomores in high school when she was born, but every time she got deeper into the year book, her father came home and she had to stop looking because of the fact that he never really liked her looking through his year book for some odd reason. Maybe he was worried that he would see her and start asking questions, but whatever the reason was, it was heart breaking to her.

She sighed to herself as she walked up the drive way checking the mailbox for mail. There was no practice today because it was a half days for some teacher’s and Jenn had to do something with her mother, so he took the bus home instead. As she went through all the bills and junk mail she stopped when she came to a large envelop. It was normal for them to get large envelopes in the mail, but normally they had to sign for them or actually go to the post office because the mail carrier had refused to carry it because it was just too big. As she looked at it, it wasn’t addressed to her father, but her.

“Charlotte Grace Davis,” she read. “904 Benedict Canyon Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210. What?” Charlie’s eyes went wide. Her father once said ‘Grace’ and just said that he accidentally called her by his sister’s middle name, but it seemed that he was having a hard time recovering and after she saw her birth certificate last night, this confirmed that her father was lying to her. But through all the confusion, she started to look at the envelope more. As she looked at the envelope, she saw that return address was from New York. “155 Franklin Street,” she read. As she pushed opened the gate, something clicked in her head. Over the summer, she and Jenn started to plan a trip to New York for next summer, if her father would let her go that was, they looked up Taylor Swift’s apartment and found the address, adding it to the list of places to visit. “No,” Charlie said as she dropped the mail on the ground and ran inside. She dropped the mail on the table by the door and ran up stairs to her room.

Her heart raced as she jumped onto her bed and turned the TV on, turning up the volume. She was going to need a cover up the sound of her opening something and have him wonder what she was doing. She looked at the hand writing and wondered what was going on and why whoever wrote it had used the right middle name and even ended each name with a little heart. She took a deep breath, turned it back over, opening it and pulling the letter out.

“Here goes everything,” she said as she looked at the letter and started to read it.

*

Dear Charlie,

I hope that’s what you’re called now, because if not then I’m sorry, it’s been so long since I’ve been told what you liked to be called.

I hope that this letter gets to you this year because it’s a special year, your fifteenth birthday. That’s how old I was when I met Abigail and my life changed forever. I’m sure that you’re a fine young lady and while I haven’t seen you since you were a newborn baby, I feel a connection with you. You are my daughter after and while you probably don’t have my musical talents, I’m sure that you have your father’s athletic abilities. I believe that the last time I talked to him, he said that you were playing field hockey, something that I never got into, but always enjoyed watching my friends play back when I was in high school.  
Enclosed is a gift card to Louis Vuitton, I figured that you’re old enough to have something this expensive and I have a feeling that all the girls at your school have them, so you should too.

If you can get permission from your father, you should come and visit me next week for your birthday. I’m sure that the answer from him will be no, but if you can sneak away at all, I’ll be out all week.  
I hope this letter finds you and doesn’t disappear into the envelope that your father keeps in that draw in his office. If not, then I guess at least you’ll get this card from him sooner or later.

Happy birthday!

Love,

Taylor (AKA Mom)

*

Charlie almost started to cry as she finished reading the letter. She finally had what she was looking for and hand the first name of her mother that had been hidden from her for years by her father.  
She quickly ran out of her room and headed into her father’s office, where she grabbed his sophomore yearbook off the shelf and sat at his desk. She quickly flipped through the book until she came across a ‘Taylor.’ The first one was guy, but as she flipped through the book, looking at each name, she stopped when she got to the “S” last names and her jaw dropped.

In the middle of the page was a girl who looked just like her, with the exception that her hair was blonde and she had better posture than Charlie would ever have, but she was the splitting image of her. She didn’t believe it. She was a perfect match right down the curly hair and the sweet smile. She then counted the names and got the shock of her life.

“It’s not possible,” she said as she read the name on the right side of the book. “Taylor Swift is my… mom. How is it possible?” She quickly closed the year book and sat in her father’s chair, trying to process what she had just found out. How was it possible that Taylor Swift, the biggest pop star in the world, was a teenage mother and had her almost fifteen years ago?

Before she had the chance to process everything, she heard the garage open and panicked. Her father was home early for some odd reason and she did not expect it or him. She wanted to look for the envelope that her mother mentioned, but had no time for that. She grabbed the year book and took it with her. Her father would never know it was gone because he never looked behind him when he got up. She quickly ran out of the room and changed out of her uniform.

“Charlie did you get the mail,” Marc asked as he walked into the house. “Crap,” she said as she pulled jeans on. “It’s on the table where it usually is,” she said. She threw a shirt on and then sat on her bed, acting like she was watching a movie and slipped the envelope and the year book that she had taken under her pillows, so that her father wouldn’t see that she had them.

Marc knocked on the door and opened it. “Long time no see,” he said as he walked into the room. At one point, he was an All American quarterback with the same color eyes and hair as her, but now, as many of the parents at Campbell Hall, he was an arrogant son of a bitch who cared for no one but himself. Charlie knew this first hand and no had to tell her. “It’s on the table where it always is,” she told him. “Looking for something?” Marc shook his head. “No,” he said. “It must be coming certified mail. It was supposed to be delivered today, but I guess that it’s coming tomorrow.” Charlie sighed softly so that her father wouldn’t hear her. She knew that he was looking for the letter that her mother, but this year it was hers and not his.

“So… where do you wanna go to dinner tonight,” he asked as her headed for the door. “Craig’s?” Charlie rolled her eyes. That was his favorite restaurant to do business at and not her’s and they went there every year because he felt the need to do business while they celebrated her birthday. She knew that he was going to take her out to dinner tonight before he left for New York and of course it was going to be a business dinner with someone that had a daughter who wanted to be there as much as she did.

“Can we just go to California Pizza Kitchen or something,” Charlie said causing Marc to turn and look at her. “I mean if that’s where you wanna go, then we’ll go. But…” Charlie groaned and flopped back on her bed. “You always do this to me every year,” she said. “It’s my birthday and I want to go someone that’s more casual and not a place that I have to dress up. Is it that hard?” Marc came over and sat on the bed next to her. “I have a very important client dinner tonight and he has a daughter that he’s bringing with him,” he said letting Charlie know that she was right. “I told him that it was your birthday and he insisted that we go there to celebrate it and also we do have an appearance to keep up, so this is the best thing to do.” Charlie sat up and looked her father dead in the eye. She was nothing but a pawn to him and was something that made him look good.

“No, you have an appearance to keep up,” she said as she stood up. “Ever since I was born you tried to keep this image up and now, all I am is an accessory you parade out when you want to make yourself look good. Is that all I am to you dad? An accessory that makes you look human? I wish my mother wanted to keep me.” Marc looked at her and sighed.

“This again,” he said as he stood up. “I’ve told you multiple times Char that she was going to put you up for adoption and that’s why Mom and Pop stepped in and helped me get custody of you. Now about the other thing., this client has a daughter that loves that place and really wants to celebrate your birthday with you.”

Charlie groaned and Marc sighed. “It’s just this one time Charlie,” he continued. Charlie then sat up. “It’s been one time since I was 10 and I we never do anything that I want to do. Like when I wanted to go to that concert with Jenn over the summer and you said no because I would be out too late. It’s my birthday after all and I want to do something that I want to do.” She get got up and walked over to her closet, acting as if she was going to start getting dressed to go out. “I made reservations for six,” Marc said and started to walk out of the room.

Charlie pulled a suitcase down and started to pack. “Then call Shea,” she said referring to his business partner. “She’s more than willing to go than I am and it is a business dinner after all.” She started pack as Marc turned back, looking to see what she was doing and he was surprised to see that she had pulled down a suitcase.

“Well then where do you think you’re going,” Marc asked. “Jenn’s,” Charlie said. “It’s my birthday and so I’m going. Now please get out so that I can pack.” She didn’t want him to see her putting his year book and the envelope in her suitcase. If anyone could figure out what to do, it was Jenn. She would be the fresh set of eyes that would help figure out what to do.

Marc walked over to Charlie and grabbed her wrist and flung her across the room, making her fly into her closet. He picked her up by her hair and held her against the wall. She tried to get away, but he was stronger than she was. He then smacked her across the face. Charlie knew that this would leave a mark that she would have to cover up.

“Now listen to me and listen to me good,” he told her. Charlie tried to look away, but the way that her father was holding her, there was no way that she could. Her breathing became shallow as he held her against the wall. He had been physical with her in the past, but this was something new.

“You know very well that you have to attend events like this even if you don’t want to. You make me look like a family man and besides that, I told them that you were coming and not Shea because he is bringing his daughter and she wants to meet you because she’s thinking about transferring to Campbell Hall. So get ready and be ready to make small talk with this girl or else .” Charlie looked at him. “Or else what,” she asked scared. Marc then reach out and smacked Charlie across the face again harder than the last time. “There will be more where that came from and more when I get back from New York. Finish packing and I’ll drop you off after dinner.” He let her go and left her alone, shutting her door.

As the door clicked, Charlie started to cry. Granted, she was somewhat used to this, but it was different. Her father smacked before, but never smacked her across the face, something was different, as if he was worried that something might happen if she didn’t show or something.

She slowly packed as she wondered she thought about Taylor’s offer as she placed the year book and the new letter in the bag along with the gift card. As she glanced at the newest letter, she realized that she finally had an out, but needed some advice about it. She knew that Jenn was going to the best bet and she knew what was going to want to do. Charlie turned and headed to her bathroom to start to process of hiding the hard mark. This was going to be the last time that this happened.


	4. Chapter 4

Dinner was so boring and the girl didn’t even talk to her, which was the best thing that happed because Marc couldn’t do anything about it and the girl wasn’t even considering Campbell Hall, in fact she wasn’t even moving here, she was staying with her father for the weekend and wasn’t planning on moving here because she thought that Los Angeles was fake.

Charlie did more than just try to talk to the girl; she didn’t eat and used the excuse that she wasn’t feeling well, when in reality she just wanted to anger her father, when asked why she wasn’t eating. While at first it seemed that it wasn’t going to work, the guy who they were out to dinner with brought it and things started to work in her favor. Charlie and the guy’s daughter, she thought that her name was Alice, but that didn’t matter, because like her, she tried to please their fathers and make small talk, but was more focused on her phone more than anything, mainly because of the fact that there was some kind of crisis going on back home with her friends, which after a bit, Marc gave her permission to do the same, which made things better because she was able to tell Jenn everything that happened.

Marc tried to include her in the conversation a few times, but the guy who as paying for dinner kept changing the subject back to whatever they were meeting about, which to Charlie, sounded like the stupidest idea that her father had ever gotten involved in. She was glad that she didn’t have to speak because if she did, she was going to embarrass him and there would be nothing that he could do about it, even after in the car, there would be nothing that he could do because Jenn’s father was high ranking detective in the LAPD and was constantly checking in on Charlie when she was acting strange. He was one of the few people that Marc was scared of and when he would show up at the house to get Charlie out of there when she called Jenn for help, he let her go and stay for as long she felt to stay, which was usually a few days until Marc cooled down.

Once dinner ended, Charlie smiled. She was going to be with Jenn for a week and there was nothing more in the world that she wanted right now. A week away from him was what she need right now more than anything.

*

It was almost 8 when as Marc pulled up in front of Jenn’s house. As the stopped, Marc smiled at her, as if nothing had happened. He knew that she couldn’t cover that welt that was on her face and smiled because she had to cover her face with her hair because she didn’t have enough makeup to cover it up. He got out of the car and helped her get her bag out of the trunk, acting as if he cared about her. “I’ll see you next Sunday,” he said as he handed her suitcase over. “Oh and before I forget Charlie, happy birthday sweetheart.” He handed her a card, which was probably the same one that he gave her last year. “I’ll get you something when you come back. I didn’t have time since I was so busy with work the past week.”

Charlie knew very well that this was a lie. He had been using her mother’s gifts all along and this time around, she had already got it. All she was to him was a pawn in his career. He never cared about her. “Alright,” she said faking as if she cared. “Have a good trip.” She then got out and headed toward Jenn’s house.

Before she even reached the door, her father pulled away and headed off to do whatever he did in New York and Jenn whipped opened the door and sighed. She already knew what happened because of the texts that Charlie sent during dinner and was waiting nervously to see what her father did.

“Thank god,” Jenn said as she pulled Charlie inside almost letting the neighbors see up her dressed up. “Are you OK?” She pushed Charlie’s hair out of her face and looked over the welt as she nodded. “Staving, but OK. I think that this is the worst one I’ve had in a while” Jenn smiled, knowing what Charlie had gone through over the years, as held up her keys, as if she had something already in mind before she even got the text from Charlie.

“In n Out,” she asked. Charlie smiled and nodded. “Of course,” she said. “I’ll eat a double double with no problem.” She grabbed her bag and went upstairs to change out of the stupid dress that she was wearing. Minutes later, the Charlie that they both knew came down. “Well at least you don’t look like you should…” Jenn didn’t get a chance to finish as Charlie walked over and hip checked her. “Save it Nichols,” Charlie said. “I know what I looked like and I don’t need to be reminded about it. Now can we go, I’m starving.” Jenn laughed. “Alright Davis…” she said with a smirk. “Let’s go.”

*

A half hour later, Jenn and Charlie walked back in to her house in better spirits. As they sat down at the table milkshakes in hand, Jenn looked at her. “The letter and the year book,” she said in between sips of a milkshake. “Can I see them?” Charlie nodded. She went upstairs and brought them to the table. Jenn quickly opened the year book and turned to the page that had Taylor’s picture on it. Her eyes went wide. She didn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Like holy shit,” Jenn said. “It’s you with blonde hair and a cuter smile.” Charlie laughed and rolled her eyes. That was the one thing that she was starting to wish that she got, but at least she had her mother’s good looks and her father’s.

“Thanks,” she said as she looked at the picture again. “I’m still in a state of shock. You should have been there when…” Charlie started to cry again. She wished that Jenn was there and maybe she wouldn’t have gotten that massive hand print across her face. Jenn quickly hugged her. “It’s alright,” she said. “I can’t be there 24/7, but at least I can be there for the aftermath to make you feel better.” Charlie sniffed a little as she got her crying under control. “That’s all I ever want,” she said. “I just hope that my mom will let live up to what she said in the latest letter.” Jenn looked at her. This was something new.

“The letter,” she said. “Can I see it?” Charlie opened the envelope and took out the letter. Jenn started to read it as Charlie looked. There was a connection that seemed to be there even though Charlie had never gotten any letters until today. Charlie started to smile as she heard Jenn start to laugh.

“She so adorable,” she said. “Did you bring the gift card?” Charlie nodded and watched as Jenn smiled. She start to wonder what she was starting to plan. “Of course I did,” she said. “You know that my father checks my room when I’m not home for anything he can use against me. So why would I leave something like that at home.” Jenn’s smile broadened.

“Good,” Jenn said. “Oh and tomorrow, we’re not going to school, instead we’re going shopping and then going star watching since we don’t have practice.” Charlie looked at her like she was crazy. She was losing her mind after she read that letter and wanted to do the one thing that she couldn’t think of doing. She was now starting to think that it was a bad idea that she even told her what she found out.

“No,” Charlie said. “Not going to happen. We’re not going to sit in front of her house and wait for her to show up and besides that, she told me next week.” Jenn laughed. “Charlie, Charlie, Charile,” she said. “Two things. One, she’s your mother and she wants to see you and two, she already here. You out of all people should know that any famous person comes out days before they decide to make public appearances so that they can get the important shit that they have to do. So why wouldn’t Taylor do the same thing?”

Charlie blushed realizing that Jenn was right. She should know this. After all, her father was always going to meet some famous person before they made it known that they were in LA, so why would Taylor do anything different? She sighed, giving in to her friend. “Fine,” she said. “What’s the plan?” Jenn leaned forward. “We go to the Louis Vuitton store…” Charlie interrupted her. “How are we going to get in,” she asked. “You know that they lock the doors when they see teenagers coming and we aren’t rich European girls.”

Jenn shook her head. “The gift card dummy,” she said causing Charlie to blush a bit, forgetting she had the key to get into the store. “As I was saying, first we go to the Louis Vuitton store, slam the gift card against the glass, get that bag that she wants you to get for the past three weeks since you saw it online and then go to your mother’s house and wait for her to show up. Trust me, she’s here, she’s just lying low.”  
Charlie sighed. She didn’t want to do this, but at this point it was this or endure more abuse from her father. She nodded. “Alright,” she said. “But if she’s not there, we’re leaving and going somewhere else. Like the Beverly Center or the beach.”

Jenn hugged her and smiled. As she was let go, Charlie started to think that this was a bad idea. But then she realized that this might be her way out and could be the best thing ever and finally her way out.


	5. Chapter 5

“Are you sure she’s here and this is even her house,” Charlie asked as they sat toward the bottom of Laurel Lane, trying to look like they weren’t stalking anyone and were just lost and just turned onto the street to make they were just checking their phones for directions. It seemed to be working because no one had come and asked them to leave or called the cops to see what was going on and why there were parked there.  
“Trust me,” Jenn said. “This is where her house is because she sold the other two that she had brought a few years ago and my uncle saw her last night as he helped her load her bags into the car that was carrying her at the airport. She’s here and even you know it. ” Charlie sighed loudly; she knew that this was going to be a bad idea. As if they weren’t going to be in enough trouble as it was, if someone called the cops, they were going to be in bigger trouble than they were, even if Jenn did produce her father’s gold card, there was other things that were going to get them in trouble.

They both had to pretend to be their parents and while Charlie almost botched it because she couldn’t impersonate her father and had to say that she was his assistant because of it, the school brought it and they were out of the day.

For them, it was kind of weird being out of school during a weekday with the tourist who hoped they would see stars out shopping, but that never happened because famous people never went to Rodeo, unlike them. She and Jenn hand gone many times and were turned away from every store, mainly because they never dressed the right way for them or because they were typical teenagers who never allowed into those stores.

But this time it was different, they actually were going to be able to get in because of the gift card. Charile and Jenn walked up to the store and as the clerk at the Louis Vuitton store was about to turn them away and lock the door to keep them from getting in, Charlie pulled the gift card that she had gotten out of her bag and pressed it against the glass. The door to the store buzzed and they were let inside.

After that, the two of them were treated like royalty and when Charlie found out how much was on the card, she blushed. She didn’t even know her mother and she gave her enough money to get a small purse that she wanted, a medium sized standard purse and a wallet that matched too. She hadn’t felt this happy in a long time and as they walked out of the store, everyone stopped and stared, thinking that she was someone famous. As they walked passed all the other stores, they called them in, offering to let them look around, hoping that they would buy something. While Jenn knew that she wanted to go into Harry Winston and get to see that necklace that she dreamed of wearing, she knew that they had bigger things to do and Charlie, who was feeling a new high and was ready to go and find her mother.

Now however, she was a ball of nerves as they sat at the bottom of Laurel Way, waiting to see if Taylor was actually home or not. It felt like they had been there for hours, but it was only fifteen minutes “I just hope he’s right,” she said to Jenn. “He was wrong about everyone else he thought he saw over the past few weeks.” Jenn rolled her eyes as they sat there. She knew that her uncle was wrong most of the time, but this time he was telling the truth, mainly because she sent her a picture because he knew that Taylor was her favorite artist. Jenn the turned toward Charlie and looked at her.

“You know what you’re going to do right,” Jenn asked trying to take her mind off of what was going on. “You’re not going to just walk up and freeze are you? Like you do when we have to do a group project in school, right?” Charlie nodded and swallowed. She had been working on the plan since the left Rodeo Drive. Mentally, it seemed like a good idea, but now she was starting to think that it wasn’t a good idea. “Buzz the box and then ask to speak to Taylor,” she said. “If they lie and say that they she’s not there, then…” She stopped as three large black SUVs turned onto the street. Jenn and Charlie looked at each other and then ducked so that they wouldn’t be seen. Once they passed, Jenn sat up and watch. She saw them go drive into the gated house at the top of the street and went to put her car in drive, but Charlie stopped her.  
“Wait a minute,” she said. “Wait to see if they come back down. This way we can find out if they are picking her up or dropping her off.” Jenn rolled her eyes, but agreed to wait and see. A few minutes later, the three trucks drove back down the hill. Before Charlie had a chance say something, Jenn whipped her car around and drove up the hill. She stopped outside of the view of the cameras, but knew that she was being seen by the others that where off in the distance. “Go,” she said. “This might be your only chance. If she’s not home, just leave a message with whoever is there and we’ll go out and find her.” Charlie took a deep breath and got out of the car.

She was dressed in her school uniform, since her and Jenn wanted to make it look like they were going to school, so that her mother would be suspicious of what they were doing, so at least she looked somewhat presentable, even though she hated wearing it and the way that it looked on her, but at least she would look good if her mother was there.

She walked toward the gate and felt like she was being watched. Cameras were everywhere and there were probably more that she couldn’t see. If anyone tried to get in, they were going to be seen right away and if they tried to even set foot on the property, they were going to be stop by her security team and taken down. Taylor even went as far as having higher fences installed so that no could see the house, even though it was a historic landmark, she wanted to have all the privacy that she could get. She even went as far extending a wall that would give her added protection between her door and the garage. This way no one could get any pictures of her and Joe Alwyn, her supposed boyfriend, that they could sell for some big money.

Charlie got to the gate and froze for a second, just like she thought she would. Her mind raced as she stood there, wondering if she was actually here or just didn’t leave. But she knew that there was only one way to find out. She took a deep breath, walked up the call box and pressed the call button. Security cameras that were on the top of fence posts whirred as they moved into position to watch her. She knew that she was being watched, but had no idea that the security was going to be this bad. The box buzzed for a few seconds, as if whoever was in the house was screening her, seeing if she was a stalker or not, before someone answered.

“Can I help you,” a woman’s voice said from the other side who came off as bit cold. Charlie was a bit surprised that someone answered, because she wasn’t expecting it, but managed to get her thoughts together.  
“Is Taylor Swift home,” she asked. The box fell silent for a second before the voice came back. “I’m sorry, but she’s not in right now. Any requests to meet her can be directed to her fan mail address,” the voice said. “She’ll get back to you when she has the time.” Charlie was devastated. The cars that went and came up were empty and really didn’t have anyone in or picked her up and headed to where she was going. This was really a waste of her time and she knew that she wouldn’t be here. She didn’t understand why Jenn even talked her into this and started to realize that this was a bad idea.

“When she gets back from whatever she’s is can you tell her that her daughter Charlie was looking for her since the letter that she wrote said that she’d be here this week starting today,” Charlie said. “It’s been fourteen years since she’s seen her and I would really like to meet her for what might be the first time. I’m sorry for wasting your time and have a nice day.”

Charlie turned and started to walk away and go back to Jenn’s car, tears welling up in her eyes. This was a waste of her time. As she started to walk back to Jenn’s car, she could see her scrambling to find the right words to comfort her, which would probably be along the lines of ‘We’ll try another day,’ and she would tell her that she didn’t want to do it and was giving up, knowing that she would never meet her mother and be stuck with her father for the rest of her life. As she neared the edge of the gate, it started to open. She didn’t stop mainly because of the fact that she thought it was security checking on her so that they could get a description of the car that she had come in, but something different happened. Someone cleared their throat.

“Charlotte Grace,” A voice said to her. Charlie stopped dead in her tracks and debated on turning around, but she did against her best judgement. As she turned around fully, she didn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Mom,” she asked in a shaky voice.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taylor Swift finally shows up and will be there for the rest of the story. I had to set it up and it works.

Taylor sat in the back one of the three trucks that was carrying her and her security crew back home While she just wanted to enjoy her time off before she started working on contact negations with many of the record labels that wanted to sign her because her time at Big Machine, it seemed that Scott was going to put her through the album promotion routine one last time. While it was only a greatest hit album, Big Machine wanted to get as much as they could out of her before left and that meant actually doing press until they had enough, which at this rate would result in her doing a small tour, playing her greatest hits, which was something she really didn’t want to do.

Earlier, she went out to brunch to do an interview with Rolling Stone about her upcoming greatest hits album that she was going to be releasing in the coming months and it was terrible. Of course they got the one guy who’s obsessed with her and thinks that he knows everything about current pop music, he still thinks that he played All Too Well, her least favorite song off of Red, the night he was at one of her tour stops, to interview her and hated every minute of it because of the way that he talked to her, but at least she got a free meal out of it.

She was glad that this was the only interview that she had to do this week. It was going to be her and Karlie tonight and then her and Joe for the rest of the weekend and then she had a few more interviews and that was it. It was going to be good to disappear of a bit again. There was no need to tour for this album, it just involved a couple meet and greets and album signings that would it and then she and Joe could be together before she went back into the studio, once she figured out who she was going to sign with of course. While this was one thing on her mind, there was one thing that was bothering her.

As she stared out window, she thought about her daughter and if she was OK. It was almost her birthday and for the fifteenth year in a row, she reach out her father hoping that she would be able to see her. She still felt stupid after all these years for not fighting for custody of her and letting him slip away with her. But her career had gotten in the way of what she really wanted to do and she never really felt the need to contact here until recently. 

As she sat there daydreaming, her phone went off, snapping her out of her trance and bringing her back to reality. She glanced at it and sighed. She had gotten a text from her daughter’s father and it was the same excuse that it was every year.

Sorry, Marc texted. But Charlotte is joining me in NYC for her birthday this year. Maybe next year. Taylor knew that this was a lie. He always lied when he called her Charlotte. She was staying with someone out here and Taylor knew it, but had no way to find out who or where she was staying with. He had been lying to her since the day that she was born. Saying that Andrea and Scott didn’t want her to have her and as it turned out, that was a lie too. He legit kidnapped his daughter and kept her away from her for all these years.

But now that she was turning fifteen, it was going to be different. The contract that Scott made him sign years ago was about to take effect and if Charlie wanted to come live with her, she could. That is if she wanted to live with complete stranger

“That son of a…” before she could finish her thought, her phone started to ring. She looked at it and saw it was Karlie. She composed herself and then answered. “Hello,” Taylor said into her phone. “Yes we’re still on for today and tonight… Nothing planned… Sure… Come over and we’ll take it from there… See you soon.” She hung up the phone and managed to muster a smile. At lease she was going to see her best friend and maybe go out to lunch. Maybe she could convince Karlie to spend the night too, but then again, that was getting harder and harder now because she was constantly in demand all over the world, but at least she was going to get to see her for a few hours before she jetted off to where she was going to go next.

As the three cars drove up Laurel Lane, she started to relax. She was glad to finally have a nice, big place that everyone could come to and that was also much more private that some of her other homes. While it was finished when she was on the reputation stadium tour, she never had the chance to actually enjoy it. She went straight from the tour to London to film Cats, but now, it seemed that she was finally going to get that chance. Joe was on his way out and they were just going to do the LA thing and do whatever they could think of, even though it meant that they would have to deal with the paparazzi, which was something that they both understood and would have to deal with.

She walked through the garage and into the house, where she saw Andrea, her mother, sitting in the living. She sat down and took off her heels. “I swear,” she started as she took off her other shoe. “If Rolling Stone sends him again, I’m going to start declining interviews because I can’t stand the way that he fangirls over me. He’s worse than some of the teenage girls that I have to deal with.

As she sat in the living room and looked back at the pool, thinking that she might lie out by it before Karlie got here, the gate buzzed the house. “Karlie’s here already,” she asked Andrea if Karlie was here or not, but realized that Karlie was more likely to be late than early. Andrea quickly turned looked at the iPad that was beside her and shook his head. “No Taylor,” she said as she looked up at Taylor. “It’s some girl.” Taylor rolled her eyes. While it was hard to find her house because it was so off the beaten path, when people did find it, they always rang the gate, trying to get in to see her or the house. She just wanted to be alone and enjoy her house and not have to deal with catering to everyone that buzzed the gate.

“Give her the usual speech,” Taylor said as she started to take off her shoes. “I’m not home as far as you know.” Taylor listened as her mother tried to chase the person away from the gate, her heart sank. “When she gets back from whatever she’s is can you tell her that her daughter Charlie was looking for her since the letter that she wrote said that she’d be here this week starting today,” the girl said. “It’s been fourteen years since she’s seen her and I would really like to meet her for what might be the first time. I’m sorry for wasting your time and have a nice day.”

Taylor’s heart sank as she heard what the girl said. She quickly stood up, grabbed the iPad from her mother and looked at the screen. She got a brief look at the girl and almost started to cry. She didn’t believe it, it had to be her. She sent the letter a few days ago from New York and it must have gotten there. Andrea looked at her.

“Is it,” she asked her. Taylor nodded, wiping the tears for her eyes. “It has to be,” she said. “She’s roughly the same age and from what I could see when I took the iPad, she looks like me.”   
Andrea looked at her daughter. While she wanted to believe that it wasn’t her long lost granddaughter, she got a better look at her than Taylor did and the resemblance was that of a teenage Taylor with darker hair. It was her.

“Go,” Andrea said with a sigh. “You’ve waited fourteen years to see her and now she somehow got the letter that you send her every year before her father did and she came to find you.” Taylor got up and then stopped. “But what if it isn’t her,” she asked Andrea. “And it’s someone pretending to be her?” Andrea looked at her. “Well, there’s only one way to find out,” she told her, not mentioning what she saw. “You’ll know if it’s her. Go. You’ve waited fourteen years for this moment.”

Taylor nodded and then ran out of the house barefoot, not caring if she had shoes on or not, she just wanted to catch the girl before she got too far. She hoped that she would get there before the girl disappeared. As the gate opened, she stepped out and looked for the girl that was at the gate seconds earlier. She turned around and saw her walking toward a car that was parked out of the view of the cameras. She fought back tears as she realized that she was looking at herself.

“Charlotte Grace,” she called out, causing the girl to stop dead in her tracks, causing her to turn around.

“Mom,” the girl asked.


	7. Chapter 7

Charlie dropped the envelope that she had brought with her and ran into Taylor’s arms. Before Taylor even had wrapped her arms around her, she started to cry, causing Taylor to start to cry as well. The two of them stood for what seemed like hours, but it was only a few seconds. Taylor hugged her tightly and looked at her. She wanted to continue the conversation that she had been waiting to have for years, but the she realized she couldn’t.

“Not here,” she told Charlie. “I don’t want to be seen and become the topic of tabloids who you are and why you’re here.” At first, Charlie didn’t understand what Taylor was talking about, but she slowly realized what she meant. There could be photographers around and if they got a picture, the internet would have a field day with them “Do you… Do you want me to come in,” she asked. Taylor nodded. “Yes,” Taylor said. “It’s going to be safer and we won’t be seen by anyone.”

Charlie looked down the street and then back at Taylor. “I… There’s… Can Jenn come with us,” she asked as Taylor made a face, wondering who she was talking about. “She’s my friend and she knows everything. She brought me here and convinced me to do this.”

Taylor looked down around the bend and sighed. She just wanted it two of them, but with her mom here and now her saying that a friend was here made things different. Taylor nodded and mustered a smile. “Of course,” she said not wanting to lose Charile after getting her back for the first time in years. “Call her and tell her to come.” Charlie wiped the tears from her eyes and waved to Jenn, who drove up the hill and waited to drive in.

Taylor walked over to the gate and punched in a code, causing it to open. After Jenn drove in, Taylor led Charlie inside, the gate closing behind them. As soon as the gate closed, Taylor hugged Charlie tightly. The both of them started to cry again. The two of them couldn’t believe that this was actually happening or dreamed that this was ever going to happen. With the way that Marc was acting, they both felt like they would never see each other, but now, it was different. They had finally found each other and now nothing was going to separate them.

Charlie looked up for a moment and saw Jenn get out of her car and smile. “Told you she’d be home,” Jenn said mockingly as Charlie rolled her eyes.  
As she stood there, waiting to be invited over, a woman then came out and walked over to Jenn. “Give them a bit of space for a bit,” Charlie heard her say. “You can sit out by the pool if you want.” The woman then ushered her inside. Charlie looked over looked up at Taylor.

“It’s my… well your grandma,” Taylor said unsure how to put it. Charlie nodded and then started to smile at her mother. “She seems nicer then my father’s mother,” she said. “But that’s probably not the best thing to be telling you right now.” Taylor smiled a bit. “It’s OK,” Taylor said. “I think we have a lot to talk about. So why don’t we go inside and sit in my office. Does that sound good to you?”

Charlie was a bit worried about what was going to be said, but knew that it was for the better and she would finally know what the truth was. She smiled and nodded at Taylor. “Start from the beginning,” she said as she looked at Taylor, wondering what she had to tell her. “Well…” Taylor started. “I guess that I could tell you the truth.” Charlie nodded. That what she wanted the truth and from someone who knew it.  
As they walked inside, Taylor stopped and smiled. “Mom,” she said to Andrea, who was coming from the backyard where she was getting Jenn settled. Charlie glanced over and saw that she was lying out in a bathing suit by the pool. Clearly, Jenn had a feeling this was going to happen, so she just either brought a suit with her or wore it underneath her uniform, just like she would have if they were sneaking off to Venice after school. “This is Charlotte…” “Charlie,” Charlie said, correcting her mother. “Right, Charlie your granddaughter.” Andrea didn’t believe it, but as Charlie pushed her hair out of her face, she saw it.  
“It is her,” Andrea said as she ran over and hugged her, causing the three of them to cry again. “The last time we saw you were weeks old,” Andrea said. “And then…” Andrea started to cry. “And then what,” Charlie started to ask. Taylor put her hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “I think you know the side of the story that you father told you,” Charlie said. “But the truth is, what he said isn’t true.” Charlie looked up at Taylor and then sat down.

“So, what he’s been telling me is a lie,” she asked causing Taylor and Andrea to nod in unison. “Why would he do that? I could have been seeing you when I wanted instead of just finding out now that I have a… mom.” Charlie started to tear up as Andrea put her hand on her shoulder. “It’s a long story sweetie,” she said. “And I think you’re old enough to hear it.” She got up and looked at Taylor. “I think you two have some talking to do,” she said. “I’m going to check on Jenn to make sure that she doesn’t get burned or too much sun for that matter.” Andrea then walked outside leaving Taylor and Charlie alone.

“So, you’re fourteen now,” Taylor said as the door closed. “And you’re going to turn fifteen tomorrow?” Charlie nodded. She watched as her mother sat across from her and started to type something on a keyboard. Charlie wasn’t sure what she was doing, but it seemed like it was something that was important. Taylor then looked up. “Then I think that you’re old enough to know the truth.” Taylor then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She looked at Charlie and started from the beginning.


	8. Chapter 8

Fifteen years earlier

Taylor sat in what would have been the nursery for Charlotte. She looked up briefly and saw the pale pink walls that she and her mother had spent days painting because the paint didn’t stick to the walls. She sat in the only remaining piece of furniture in the room, a rocking chair that she had planned on rocking her when she was fussy and when she got older, to read and sing to her. But now, that wasn’t going to happen. The rest of the furniture had been sold off to people who were looking for inexpensive, lightly used baby things or donated to local charities that would help those in need who couldn’t afford new items that they needed. Taylor looked down at the small child, who was happily sleeping in her arms; not knowing what was going on and started to cry a bit. If she only knew the trouble that she caused.

Months ago, she found out that she was pregnant and while Marc, her boyfriend, and his parents what her to give up the baby, she was determined to keep it. She knew that she could balance both the music career and raising a child with the help of her parents, but Marc’s family thought otherwise and was determined to get custody of Charlotte. Scott had managed to get one of his lawyer friends to get some kind of protection order to keep Taylor and Charlotte safe, but had expired and now she had lost another fight.

A week after Charlotte came into the world, Marc’s parents hit her with a lawsuit that stated that because of Taylor’s upcoming career, she wouldn’t be able to care for her child and while Andrea and Scott did help Taylor try to fight Marc and his family, but in the end it was a loss.

“After great consideration,” the judge said in the courtroom a few weeks earlier. “I have to agree with the Davis family in this case. While I’m sure that Ms. Swift will be an excellent mother and will raise her daughter well, I have to agree with the fact that due to what will eventually be a touring and recording schedule that Ms. Swift will not be around often to nurture he daughter and will be in constant care of her parents. This is why I am rewarding custody to Mr. Davis and his parents. Mr. Davis will be there and support his daughter and his parents will only help. Ms. Swift has three weeks to hand the child over to Mr. Davis. Ms. Swift will not have to pay child support. However, I would like the lawyers to draw up a contract that will grant Ms. Swift a chance to get her daughter when she turns fifteen.”

That was all that was said. The lawyers tried refile for another motion, but it seems that Rob and Marybeth, Marc’s parents, had already gotten to the judge and bribed him or something. He was refusing to even rehear the case and even if they got another judge to rehear the case, there was no time to get a block to order from the previous case that would keep Charlotte with Taylor and her parents until the start of the next trial.

As Taylor sat there, Andrea came into the room and looked over her shoulder. As she stood there, Taylor started to cry.

“How could I have been so stupid,” she said. “I should have made him wear a condom.” Andrea mustered a smile and rubbed Taylor’s shoulders. “At least you’ll be able to see her on her birthday,” Andrea said. Taylor sobbed. She wanted to see her every weekend, but as part of the agreement, she would get to see her once a week, but she knew that was going to happen. Marc was going to take her and she was going to see her again. Andrea mustered a smile, hoping that it would comfort her.

“Sweetie,” Andrea started. “I know that it’s rough, but everything will be fine. Your father is talking with the lawyer as we speak, trying to see if there is something that they can to keep him from moving, if that’s what he’s planning on moving that is.” Taylor sighed to herself and wiped the tears from her eyes. If her mother only knew about what she saw when she went over there to get Charlie yesterday, she would want to move away before anything could happen too. Almost everything that Marc and his parents had was boxed up and it seemed like they were getting ready to move. While they insisted that they were only moving to Brentwood so that he father could be closer to his practice, but when she saw the tickets that were marked ‘EWR,’ she knew that they weren’t moving south, they were moving away.

“I know,” she said to her mother. “But I saw some things that set up red flags with me. What if they’re actually moving away and I won’t see her again.” Andrea sighed. She was hoping that Taylor was just over reacting, but she had a feeling that she wasn’t. She smiled at her.

“I’ll let you be alone with her,” she said. “Just remember, you’ll always be there for her no matter what.” Andrea walked out of the room and left Taylor alone. Taylor leaned down and kissed Charlie on top of her head, causing the child to stir a bit.

“If anything happens,” she said to her. “I will find you and we will be back together, even if I take him to court to if I have to get you back.” She slowly rocked the child as she fell back to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates will come every other Friday. It's easier for me that way.
> 
> Oh and there's a bit of a trigger warning here, so be ready.

Charlie looked at Taylor as she finished the story and started to cry again. She couldn’t believe that she had been lied to all these years by her father and started to realize that the person that really loved her was her mother, who she had been hidden away from for her entire life. Her father told her constantly that Taylor didn’t want her and wanted to have her career over raising her, but the truth was that Taylor wanted to be there for her and raise her, unlike her father who was just using her as a ploy for his life, her mother actually cared about her and wanted to be there, watching her field hockey games, even if it meant that she had to wear a wig and sunglasses to do it.

She leaned into her mother and sobbed, which in turn caused Taylor to cry. “Why would he do that,” she asked between sobs. “I know that you would have been there for me unlike him, who just used me to make him look like a family man and make himself look good.” Taylor stopped for a second and composed herself. She had to be the strong one here and explain her father the best she could to Charlie.  
“He was always like that,” she told her. “He dated me because, as he put it, ‘I was the prettiest girl that he had ever seen’ and also said that we were going to be together forever, but that was a lie too. He just was dating me because of the fact that he knew that I was going to be famous and was trying to ride my coat tails so that he could be a kept man for the rest of his life.” Taylor grabbed a tissue and wiped Charlie’s eyes. She smiled at her.

“But now, it seems that he told you about me and you came to see me,” Taylor said as she smiled. She was so happy that her Marc had come to his senses and had allowed her to come. “So it seems that he wants us to be together.” Charlie fell silent and looked at her mother. She was at a loss for words. She didn’t want to ruin her fantasy, but she had to. “He… He doesn’t know I’m here,” she told her. “I’m staying at Jenn’s house of the weekend since he’s in New York on business and she convinced me to come here to find you. Her uncle said that he saw you the other night when you landed and I also wanted to use your birthday gift, which was the first one that that I ever got from you, so she convinced me to skip and come here.” Charlie turned bright red as she admitted this. She didn’t want to tell her mother that she skipped school too, but it felt right.

“So all the birthday gifts that I sent you over the years…” Charlie shook her head. “I thought they were from my dad,” she said. “And the letters,” Taylor asked. Charlie shook her head a second time. “There’s more,” Charlie asked a bit surprised. Taylor stood up and walked away for a moment, trying to compose herself. Marc was doing exactly what she thought he would do. He was using her to his advantage and keeping her from the truth. Taylor then walked back into the room and looked at her again and noticed something.

“Why is your hair covering your face anyway,” Taylor asked. “Someone like you shouldn’t be covering her face.” Charlie looked away. She didn’t want to tell her, but something about being around her mother was comforting. Jenn’s makeup had started to wear off and the mark from last night was starting to show. She then sighed and pulled her hair back from her face, showing the mark that was slowly becoming a bruise. Taylor looked at her and shook her head. “He did this, didn’t he,” she asked. “And to lie Charlie, because it’s only going to make things worse than they already are.” At first, Charlie wanted to lie, but she knew that would make it better if she was just honest with her. She sighed a bit and then looked at Taylor and started to cry.

“Last night, I refused to go out to dinner with him because it’s my birthday and I didn’t want to go where he wanted to because he had some stupid meeting with a client who had a daughter,” she said between sobs. “So he smacked me harder than I thought and this happened. I didn't think that it was going to turn into a bruise, but this is the first time that it happened. Jenn tried to cover it up, but I guess all the crying didn't really help” Taylor hugged her and started to rub her back. “I’m sorry,” Taylor said. She then looked at her. “I want… I want you to stay the weekend with me and my mom. I want to get to know you and make up for lost time. Jenn is more than welcome to stay too.” Hearing that made Charlie lose it and she started to sob louder. She knew that her mother wasn’t going to take no for an answer and the fact that Jenn was going to stay too, made everything better. She looked up at her mother, wiped the tears from her eyes and mustered a smiled.

“I will,” she said as she wiped the tears from her face. “Jenn will too probably. But her parents will probably say no once they find out what happened.” Taylor smiled. “Then just us is fine. We’ll do whatever you want. It is your birthday after all. In fact, I’m going to make a few phone calls to make it even happier.” As Charlie started to smile, the house phone started to ring. Taylor looked at it and shook her head.  
“What’s wrong,” Charlie asked as she started to panic a bit. “Did…” Taylor shook her head. “You did nothing wrong,” she said. “In fact you’re doing everything right, but there is one thing that I forgot about.” Charlie looked at her mother confused and Taylor sighed as she answered the phone. “Come in,” she said and then turned her attention toward Charlie. “Karlie is coming over and we’re supposed to go out to lunch.” Charlie looked at her and she realized what was going on. “Kloss,” Charlie asked in a drawn out fashion, confused by what was going on. Taylor nodded as she helped Charlie up out of the chair that she was sitting in.

“You’re going to like her and I have a feeling that she’s going to like you.” Taylor took Charlie by the arm and led her out of the room. She then sat her in a chair in the foyer and headed outside.  
As she sat there, Charlie started to think that this was a bad idea. But as she sat there, Andrea passed her and smiled, reassuring her that everything was going to be fine and she started to calm down a bit.


	10. Chapter 10

Karlie wondered what had taken Taylor so long to let her in to the driveway. The Goldwyn Estate was so off the grid that most photographers didn’t know where it was or how to get there for that matter because of the fact that they would get lost trying to navigate the windy roads that lead up to the house. Even she got lost the first time that she had to come here because of the fact that she constantly kept driving past the street and had to turn around in Franklin or in The Beverly Hills Hotel parking lot and when she did find it, she felt so dumb because it was just as simple as Taylor said it was going to be.

While her security team did sit at the bottom on the hill to discourage anyone from going all the way up the hill to look and see if they could see Taylor or try to see the house like so many people have tried to do, they were rarely needed, which was a good thing, but for everyone else, it was a bit of a pain in the ass. After the first time it was simple, but everyone else did complain about how hard it was to find the first time. But she was glad that Taylor finally got a bigger house so that everyone could spend the night if they wanted to, which was often and it seemed like it happened every time she was out on the West Coast and that wasn’t a bad thing. It meant that everyone would finally start hanging out again and eventually and hopefully have another Fourth of July party, which is something that secretly all wanted.

As she got out of the truck that had brought her here, she went around back and got her luggage out of the back. She turned and sat that Taylor had walked out of the house. As she glanced back, something didn’t seem right, but Taylor was constantly on edge about being photographed, so she just brushed it off.

“Surprise,” she said as she pulled out another bag, which even surprised Taylor. “Everything was canceled and my dress fitting got delayed, so I had the weekend free and decided to stay. We can do whatever you want, even go to that new restaurant in Hollywood that you wanted to go to.” While Taylor would normally run over and hug Karlie, mainly because of the fact that this meant that they would stay up all night baking and watching true crime shows, her reaction was different this time. Taylor was a bit surprised by this and seemed a bit embarrassed. This wasn’t like her and Karlie knew that something was up, but she couldn’t figure out what. She then walked over and put her hands on her waist.

“Are you alright, Tay,” she asked. “You seem a bit upset by this.” Something was up and Karlie knew it. It seemed that Taylor was hiding something from her, as if she didn’t want her to find out about something that she had in the house. Taylor then took a deep breath and looked at her friend. “If I tell you what’s wrong, will you promise not to freak or flip out,” she asked. Karlie looked at her and just nodded. “You know I won’t do either of those things,” she said. “You are my best friend after all and you know that you can tell me anything. What’s on your mind?” Karlie was starting to think that something happened with Joe and now she was looking for someone to vent to. Taylor took a deep breath as she looked at her best friend.

“Do you remember a while ago, like maybe during the 1989 Tour, I told you, Gigi, Selena, and maybe Hailee, something during the tour after we had a couple of drinks,” she asked. Karlie thought about it for a moment and the shook her head. She didn’t believe that this was coming back again. She sighed.

“Was it the story about how you have a daughter that you had taken away from you,” she asked and then sighed as they started to walk toward the house. “Taylor, we all want to believe you but you don’t have any proof that she exists. I mean for all we know, you made her up to…” Karlie stopped what she was saying as Taylor opened the door and she saw what appeared to be Taylor’s younger doppelganger sitting in the hallway. Karlie’s jaw dropped when she saw her profile. “Wait… what’s going on,” Karlie asked causing Charlie to look up and smile at her.

“Karlie,” Taylor started as she led her over to Charlie. “This is Charlotte Grace Davis, my daughter.” Karlie felt like she might pass out. This was too much to take in and also too much to process. At first, she didn’t want to think that this was happening or that the person that was sitting in front of her was real. Karlie composed herself, but then slumped against the wall. “Wait… she’s real,” Karlie said as she sat down on the floor. “You weren’t lying.” Taylor helped Karlie back up. “Why would I lie,” Taylor asked. “You know that I would never lie about anything.” Karlie looked at her and shook her heard. “Well…” She started and caused Taylor to scoff. “Oh shut up,” Taylor said. “I tried for years to get in touch with her, but her father refused to even let me see her.” Karlie looked over at Charlie, who nodded in agreement.

“He kept me away from her because he wanted to use me for his benefits,” Charlie said as she chimed in. Karlie looked at the two of them and then realized that Charlie had a massive bump near her eye. “And abusing you a bit too from the looks of it,” Karlie said as Charlie shied away a bit. Taylor looked at her and then smiled. “Why don’t go find… your grandmother and see where she put you bag,” Taylor said. “Karlie and I have to talk a bit.” Charlie nodded and got up without saying a word. She knew that when her father said that to her, it meant that her father wanted to talk about something that she didn’t understand.

Once she was out of ear shot, Karlie looked at Taylor and the start to giggle. “You’re… a teenage mother,” she said and then giggled a little, not believing that she said that. “Tay, I’m surprised that you kept it from us for so long.” Taylor rolled her eye. “Yes,” Taylor said. “And it’s not like I forgot about her or anything. Her father kept her from me.” Karlie looked at Taylor, curious about everything.

“Alright Swift,” she started. “Spill it. I want to hear everything.” Taylor looked at her and sighed. “Everything,” she asked Karlie. Karlie nodded. “Everything,” she said. Taylor sighed as she started to walk down the hall. “Well…” she started.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4th of July messed up my weeks. Normal posting will resume next week.

“No way,” Jenn said in disbelief as she rolled onto her back, sitting up on her elbows a bit. She had been out in the sun for only a few minutes and she was already a darker shade of tan, which made Charlie jealous and everyone on the field hockey team, including Charlie, hated her for that reason. All she had to do was stand out in the sun for three hours and she had tan lines.

“Karlie Kloss isn’t here,” Jenn said. She saw Taylor talking to someone as Charlie came out and they headed toward the office, but couldn’t figure out who it was. It was too tall to be Selena Gomez, who she was hoping to meet, and it wasn’t anyone else who she could think of, so she was curious to who had gotten out of the car that she heard arriving when she was heading out to the pool that she almost walked into the house to see who it was, but didn’t because she was asked to hang out by the pool until she was asked to come back in. Charlie nodded. She wanted to surprise Jenn by not telling her that one of her favorite celebrities was here, but she couldn’t contain herself.

“She is,” she said. “I saw her with my own eyes and shook her hand briefly, but that was before my mother…” she stopped for a second and fell silent. The word so sounded strange to her. For years it was just her and father, but now it seemed that there was going to be more now or at least she hoped. She wondered how it was going to work or if it was going to work at all or even if she would see her mother any more after this. This might be the first and last time that she met her. For all she knew when her father found out what she did, they would move in the middle of the night like they did when she was 13. As she sat there, she started to realize something, but before she had the chance to really put the pieces of the puzzle together, Jenn waved her hand in front of her face, bringing her back to reality.

“You OK,” Jenn asked causing Charlie to snap out of her trance. “Yeah,” Charlie said. “Oh and before my mother asked me to go find Andrea so I can come out here with you. I still don’t get it.” Jenn shook her head. “You know that they’re talking about you, right,” she said. “I’m sure that no one but her and mother and maybe Selena know about you.” Charlie knew that Jenn was right. There were three people that knew she existed and one of them wasn’t famous like Taylor was. This was going to turn Taylor’s world upside down and make things worse for her. She already couldn’t walk out her front door in New York without having a crowd of people and photographers waiting for her. Taylor was just coming back into the spotlight and now she had just shown up and maybe make things worse for her. She was one of the photographed celebrities in the world and things were going to get crazier for her.

“Well maybe they’re just planning something for my birthday,” Charlie said trying to put a positive spin on things. “And I think she said that she wanted you to spend the night too. That is if you can convince your parents.” Jenn laughed as she reached for her phone. “Watch this,” she said. “Oh and yours went off. It’s your dad. I didn’t read it because he would know that it wasn’t you.” Jenn stepped away as Charlie reached for phone.

Hey Kid, it started in its usual fashion. Having a great time in NYC with some clients, but it isn’t the same without you. You’re probably going to have to spend the week with Jenn because I have to stay out till next weekend. I’ll text her parents. Talk to you soon. – Dad.

Charlie just sent her usual reply and watched as the door opened. Karlie and Taylor walked over and smiled at her just as Jenn ended her phone call. As she turned around, she didn’t believe what she was seeing. Not only was Taylor standing back there, but Karlie Kloss, her idol, was standing back there too. Jenn screamed and ran over, almost falling in the pool in the process, but somehow managed to recover and regain her balance. “Told you,” Charlie said. “And you didn’t believe me that you favorite person in the whole world was here.”

Jenn stuck her tongue as she hugged Karlie. “I… ummm…” Jenn said. “It’s nice to meet you.” Jenn was at a loss for words and caused Karlie to laugh. “Well it’s nice to meet you too,” she said. “And Charlie, I apologize. When I first heard the story a few years ago, I thought… your mother was a little crazy, she had been touring for a few months and all thought that she was just making it up.” Charlie and Jenn looked over at Taylor. “So, no one knew that I even existed besides you until now,” Charile asked. Taylor nodded.

“I might have had too much to drink one night when I had a few days off between shows during the 1989 tour and mentioned that I had a daughter that no one knows about,” Taylor said. “But of course, no one believed me, because it just didn’t seem like me to be a teenage mother. But now, it seems that everyone is in for a shock.” Jenn, Karlie and Charlie all looked at each other.

“Mom…” Charlie said for the first time besides when she first saw her. She started to cry, causing Taylor to run over to her quickly. “Let’s go inside and talk a bit,” Taylor said and looked over at Karlie and Jenn. “Are you two going to be alright,” she asked causing Karlie to look up from a computer that she and Jenn were huddled over. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ve got someone here who’s interested in coding, so I’m good.” Taylor rolled her eyes. It was Karlie’s thing, so she was going to be fine. Taylor then lead Charlie back into the house.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for talk of abuse and description of it and the results from it

Taylor led Charile up to her bedroom and sat her down on the bed. She knew they would not be disturbed while they were in here. Karlie was busy with Jenn, looking over whatever she was working on in her coding class and her mother was out for the afternoon, looking for something for Charlie for her birthday, so there would be no interruptions whatsoever. She lied on the bed and comforted Charlie as she sobbed.  
“It’s alright,” she told her. “It’s alright. I’m here.” Charlie tried to settle down, but she couldn’t. She sat up and looked at Taylor with tears rolling down her face. “Then… Then…” she sobbed causing Taylor to sit up and hug her. “Then why weren’t you there for me? You could have come and got me away from my dad.” Taylor sighed as she pushed Charlie’s hair out of her face and pulled her off of her shoulder. This was going to be hard to explain, even by her standards.

“Your father and I weren’t the best people to try and arrange custody,” she said. “Three days after you were born, he took me to court and somehow convinced the judge that I wasn’t going to be a good mother and got custody.” Charlie looked up at her. “He told me that you didn’t want me,” she said. “And never wanted to see me at all. “ Taylor shook her head. The lies that he was telling their daughter were the worst and were actually more hurtful than she thought.

“That’s not true,” Taylor told her. “The judge told him that we had to have join custody and I was trying to get you back, but before the court date could happen, he moved and took you with him.” Charlie finally calmed down and looked at her mother. She was telling the truth, unlike her father. ”So why didn’t you come for me,” Charlie asked. “You have more lawyers than he has.” Taylor sighed.

“He got a restraining that was ironclad and prevented me from trying to see you,” she told her. “Your father was smart in somethings and dumb in others. The judge told him that in order to get custody; he has to sign a contract that stated that when you turn fifteen, you can decide who you want to live with. He doesn’t know that it expires tomorrow, on your birthday, so now I can see you. I was planning on finding you, but you cut out the hard part.” Charlie looked at her. Everything that her mother was telling her seemed true.

“So all the moving that I did as a kid was because you got close,” Charlie asked and Taylor nodded. “And will I get in trouble if I’m seeing you now.” Taylor thought about those questions for a moment. “A few times, I found you and then by the time I got there, you were gone,” she said. “Your father is not good at many things, but when it came to hiding you away, he was very good at that. But now things will be different and no, you won’t get in trouble. If it comes up in court, I’ll just say that it just happened.”

Charlie looked at her mother. “What do you mean that I can decide if I want to live with you when I turned fifteen,” she asked. Taylor looked at her. She had a feeling that she was going to have to explain it. She sighed. “If you want,” she started. “And I’m sure that I know the answer, you can come live with me if you want to. The contract says that you’re the one who has to make the choice and not me or your father.”  
Charlie’s jaw dropped when she heard that. After years of not having a mother in her life, she finally had one. “Really,” Charlie asked as Taylor nodded. “This is just a test run,” Taylor said. “If it works out, then I’ll use the court to gain custody of you and we’ll take it from there. Sound good?” Charlie nodded. She didn’t believe that this was happening and really didn’t want it to end. She knew her father would catch wind of this somehow, but now, that didn’t matter.

“Really,” Charlie said. “I mean of course it’s gonna work. Do you still have that contract?” Taylor nodded. “It’s on its way here as we speak,” she told her. “By Monday it will be here and we’ll probably be in court for a week, but by next Saturday, you should be here all the time.” Charlie liked the sound of it. While she smiled, it quickly disappeared. “Can… Can I tell you something,” Charlie said. Taylor looked at her and wondered what she had to say. “And promise that you won’t freak or anything?” Taylor nodded as Charlie got up and pulled her iPad from her bag, which somehow wound up in here by accident.

“I… I’ve ran away from home a few times because of my father,” she stated as she handed the device over to Taylor. “Not away, but just to Jenn’s house for a few days or a week because of how abusive he is with me.” Taylor looked on in horror as she scrolled through all the photos that she hand. “He…” Charlie shook her head. “No,” she said. “He wouldn’t do that. These are just from shoves into walls and down hallways. The one on my face is as bad as he gets.” Taylor sat up and looked at her.

“What else has he done,” she asked. Charlie looked at her and knew that it was finally time to tell someone. “He’s locked me in my closet for hours at a time. Forced me into cars and be rated me to the point where I thought I was worthless and also called me names. I’m glad that I had Jenn, because without her, I might have done something extreme.” Taylor looked at the iPad and then back at Charlie. “You didn’t think about…” Charlie shook her head. “No, maybe hurting myself, but not that crazy. Jenn and her parents, to a point, but mostly her, have been there for me and let me stay when my father got rough with me.” Taylor looked at her and sighed. She needed a minute to process what was going on, but she didn’t want to do it in front of Charlie. She then got an idea.

“Why don’t you get Jenn and Karlie and tell them that we’re going to go out and get somethings for tonight,” she said. “There’s more people coming, but I’ll tell you who later.” Charlie smiled and then hugged her mother. “OK Mom,” she said, not losing it this time. Charlie left the room and left Taylor alone.

Taylor waited a few seconds before she picked up the phone and called her father. After a few rings, Scott picked up. “Hello sweetheart,” Scott said. “How are you today?” Taylor fought back tears as he sighed a bit. “Daddy,” she said. “Daddy I need your help. She found me.” Scott didn’t know who to answer. “Charlotte,” he asked. “She got away from that… that asshole?” Taylor swallowed. “She got my letter for a change and found me,” she said. “But it was worst that we thought.” Scott fell silent for a second. “How much worse,” he asked. Taylor sighed as she sat down on the bed. “He’s abusing her, more mental than physical. But there is a bit of physical involved. She’s scared, I can tell.” Scott sighed. He was clearly frustrated as she was. “Get me copies of photos if there are any,” he told her. “And then get me a copy of that contract that you made him sign. I’ll have the lawyers look over it.” Taylor sighed. “Pictures are heading over now and I think I sent a copy to you as well.” Scott fell quiet for a second. “Good,” he said. “I’ll call you tomorrow after I check with them to make sure that everything is still legal.” Taylor sighed. “Alright dad,” she said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Love you.” “Love you too,” Scott said as the phone call ended. Taylor composed herself as Charlie knocked on the door. “Just a second,” she said as she deleted the message that she sent. “You can come in.”

Charlie walked in and smiled. “Everything alright,” she asked as she stood in the doorway. “Jenn is just getting changed and Karlie said that she’s just finishing a phone call and then we can go.” Taylor got up and hugged her. “Everything’s fine,” she told her. “I’m just so happy that you finally are back in my life. Now there’s just one thing I want you and Jenn to do,” she said. Charlie looked at her. “What’s that,” she asked. Taylor got up and pulled her daughter close.

“Under no circumstances, unless you’re in trouble, do you even acknowledge the paparazzi,” she said. “Oh and fans, don’t because we’ll be there all day.” Charlie swallowed as she nodded. This was going to be something new and something that will take some time to get used to.


	13. Chapter 13

“Whole Foods,” Taylor asked as the car pulled out of the gate and started to drive down the hill, heading back into Beverly Hills. “No,” Jenn said a bit defensive. “That place is crawling with photographer and people looking for celebrities. Trader Joe’s will be safe.” Karlie scoffed. “That’s even worse,” she said. “We can just go to Costco after all.” Charlie then cleared her throat. “Whole Foods,” she said. “I know that it’s a risky choice, but it is my birthday after all and besides that, they have that ice cream that I like.” Jenn rolled her eyes. “You and that damn Ample Hills,” she said. “I swear it’s just luxury Hagen Daz.” This was the only reason that Charlie went to Whole Foods, besides when they were looking for lunch on the weekends or going after practice to get drinks from the pressed juice stand that was in it, but this is the only thing that they went there for. She always left with three pints.

Taylor nodded and sighed a bit. It was going to be interesting, but hard. While she wanted to tell the world that she had a daughter, she was sure that it was too soon to do it. But if Charlie wanted to go to Whole Foods, then they were going to Whole Foods. Taylor looked at her driver, who just nodded and headed toward the Beverly Hills Whole Foods. “So who else is coming tonight,” Charlie asked eager to hear who her mother invited to the party. Taylor perked up a bit and smiled.

“Well, everyone is busy doing things,” she said. “But Selena said that she had nothing going on for a few days, so she’s coming.” Just as she finished saying that, her phone dinged. “And now Hailee is in too.” Jenn and Charlie looked at each other and the start to scream a bit. “Hailee Steinfeld and Selena Gomez,” Jenn asked. “This has to be a joke.” Charlie smiled. This was going to be the best birthday yet.

Taylor then looked at her. “They were coming over anyway,” she said. “I did invite them before you showed up, but they don’t know the both of you are here.” Her phone dinged again as she looked and saw that Selena was have her usual dilemma of how much clothing she should bring and if this was going to turn into a while weekend thing or not. Charlie then reached over and tapped Jenn on the shoulder.

“So how did you get your parents to let you spend the weekend anyway,” Charlie asked her. Jenn shrugged. “I told them that we had a team weekend,” she said. “They always believe stuff like that. Oh and we might have to head home after this to get a change of clothes for the weekend.” Charlie nodded. “We’ll go after this,” Taylor said. “It’s not an issue. Did you want to stop at your dad’s house, Charlie?”

Charlie fell silent. She knew that she wasn’t supposed go back home when her father wasn’t around, but this was a chance to get the book that she was reading and maybe the other important legal documents too. “I guess we could,” she said. “I know the code to the security system, so I should be in and out, but you could always come in with me too and help me get things that I want to bring over to your house.” Taylor smiled as she heard that. “Just little things for now,” she said. “I don’t want your father to wonder why some big things are missing He’ll probably see that and know what’s going on.” Charlie smiled as she heard that. As she was about to say something else, the truck pulled up in front of the Whole Foods.

“Now remember,” Taylor started. “Don’t talk to anyone, don’t answer any questions and more importantly, don’t tell anyone who you are,” Jenn and Charlie said at the same time, impressing Taylor and Karlie. As they sat there, photographers who were standing around watching people walk around, swarmed the SUV, but giving them enough space to walk in. “Ready,” Taylor asked as she reached for the door. Charlie nodded. It was now or never.  
*  
“Get back,” a security guard yelled. The photographers scrambled as Taylor pushed a cart out of the store, followed closely by Charlie, Jenn and Karlie. While she didn’t know what to do, Charlie reached for her mother’s hand, which Taylor promptly took and held tightly. The photographers went nuts when they saw this and started to ask all sorts of question, like who she was and what was going on for that matter, because everyone was confused as hell.

But Charlie ignored them, doing what Taylor told her to do. While rumors were going to spread quickly, Charlie was ready for what was coming and it seemed that her mother was too. Taylor quickly loaded the bags into the back of the truck and then helped Charlie into the truck while Karlie took care of Jenn.

“That was a rush,” Charile said. “And you have to deal with all the time?” Karlie and Taylor looked at each other. “Yes,” they both said at the same time. “And it does get old after a while,” Karlie said. “You’ll get tired of getting screamed at all the time pretty quickly.” Jenn looked at Charlie and while they both knew that Taylor and Karlie were right, to teenagers like them it was something new and amazing. “I guess that being in the spotlight for so long does have it effects, but man is it crazy,” Jenn said. Karlie rolled her eyes. “Give it five years and ask Charlie how much she likes it and how you can’t go anywhere without them following you,” Karlie said.

The truck started to drive away and headed toward the house that Charlie lived in, which as it turned out wasn’t too from Taylor’s and it seemed that Marc was toying with Taylor, just like he did all the time.  
As they turned onto Benedict Canyon, dread filled Charlie’s head. She was sure that her father didn’t arm the alarm, mainly because of the fact that he would always forget to set it, but because he out of state, he might have set it. “Can we park down the street,” Charlie asked and Taylor nodded. “Worried about something,” Taylor asked. Charlie nodded and then sighed. “The drive way has cameras, but the gate doesn’t so it’s easier to walk up that way.” Taylor knew that there was something up, but didn’t want to alarm Charlie, so she decided to let her run the show. The truck parked far enough away so that they wouldn’t be seen coming up the drive way. As Charlie put the code in to unlock the gate, she breathed a sigh of relief. The security company that her father used was supposed to come out and install a ring doorbell so that they could finally replace the busted door camera, but it looks like they canceled again.

“Come on mom,” Charlie said. “We have to be quick or else my father will wonder why the alarm was disarmed.” If the alarm was disarmed for more than fifteen minutes, her father would get a text and check the interior cameras for anyone inside. Charlie pulled her key from her bag and Taylor stopped her. “Are you sure it’s a good idea that I’m coming with you,” she asked. Charlie looked at her and then sighed. “I kind of need a second set of hands to carry something out,” she said. “I can do it, but I need you to make sure that it doesn’t get lost.” Taylor nodded as Charlie put the key in the door.

Charlie quickly pushed the door opened and disarmed the alarm by putting the code in, letting Taylor watch. “He’s a fan, isn’t he,” she asked as she watched Charlie punch in ‘1989’ into the pad. “Not really,” she said. “It’s his birth year too, so he just does it for everything.” Charlie grabbed Taylor by her hand and led her to her bedroom. As she pushed opened the door, she stopped and looked back at her.

“Promise you won’t be embarrassed when I open the door,” she said. Taylor nodded, having a feeling about what was coming since she was once her age too. Charlie pushed opened the door and Taylor was amazed. The room was a smaller master that had its own bathroom, but that’s what impressed Taylor. Charlie’s walls were covered in pictures of her from various points of her career, including her early country days. She was a fan and she didn’t even know until last week that her mother was her favorite pop star. Taylor walked around the room and then stopped.

“You still have this,” she asked as she looked the stuffed toy whale that sat on Charlie’s bed. Charlie stopped shoving stuff in her bag for a moment and looked over at her. “I do,” she said as she looked at her mother. “Why?” Taylor picked it and placed it in the bag. “It was the last thing that I brought for you,” she said as she zipped the bag closed. “Your father was running late as usual, so my mom and I wheeled you around Toys r Us until he called to say that you he was there. As we passed the stuffed animals, this fell off the shelf and landed in front of us. I took it as a sign and brought it. I was sure that your father was going to throw it out, but I guess that he didn’t.” Charlie started to cry again and hugged her mother.

“He… He told me that mom-mom brought it for me,” she said sobbing. “She saw it when she was on a business trip and thought that I would like it.” Charlie sobbed and Taylor looked at her watch. “Sweetie, I had to interrupt your tears, but we’ve got 10 minutes before your father gets that alert. Now what was the last thing that you needed to get?” Charlie dried her eyes and looked at her. “There’s one envelope with all your my important documents in his office,” she said. “I want to get them and have them before the court date, this way he can’t hide them.”

Taylor looked at her and smiled. “There’s something else that you never told anyone about,” she said. “That’s why you need me.” Charlie blushed. “There’s also some kind of other thing in his desk. He said that it was some kind of legal document that he wanted to get changed of years, but never had the chance. Something that has to do with me when I turned fifteen, but he never said what.” As she heard that, Taylor started to smile. While her lawyer was sending a copy to her father, having an actual physical copy was the best thing that could happen right now.

“Did he ever really explain what it says to you,” Taylor asked her daughter as they left her room. “No,” Charlie said. “He just said that he wanted to meet with you or something to fix something in it.” Taylor grabbed Charlie by her arm and led her toward her father’s office. As she pushed opened the door, she looked at her.

“Do you know where it is,” she asked as she looked around the office, trying to figure out where he would put it. Charlie walked over to the desk and pulled an envelope off the desk. “He wanted to keep it out where he could find it,” she told her. “This way he was ready if you called at all. He says that he left messages with your lawyers.” Taylor knew that was a lie, Marc was so busy with life that he would forget to do things like this. “Now what about the other things,” Taylor asked. Charlie opened a draw and then pulled out the envelope that had all of her important documents in it. “I think that’s it,” Taylor opened the envelope and saw that everything that she was going to need was in it. Her passport. Her social security card. Even her birth certificate was all in here. “It is,” Taylor said.

Charlie wondered why she wanted it. “Why do I need to take these,” she asked. “I know that they’re important, but are they really that important.” Taylor tucked everything into the folder. “We’ll need them if anything happens,” Taylor said. “This way we don’t have to go to court just to get them.” Charlie nodded as she closed the draw. The two of them then walked to the front door with two minutes to spare. Charlie was about to arm the alarm when she quickly ran off and came back with one more thing. “I’ll tell you about it later,” she said as she held a book close to her chest. Taylor nodded as she rearmed the alarm and walked out with Charlie. As she pulled the door shut, she looked at her daughter.

“Do you think that he saw us at all,” Taylor asked as she opened the gate. Charlie shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said confident. “We made it with two minutes to spare.” While her mother smiled at her answer, Charlie knew that her father would be texting her soon because he was always checking the cameras no matter what. But for now, he didn’t know that they were there. The both of them go in the truck, rejoining a sleeping Karlie and Jenn and then headed back home.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you go out, you forget to update. Delayed, but still on time.

Charlie unpacked her stuff and felt like she was home for the first time in her life. Unlike living with her father, living with her mother was different. It was warm and welcoming and not cold and uncomfortable because her father never really made her feel welcome even though she lived there. Granted, it was only going to be for the weekend, but it felt right. The ride home was quiet as she put her head in her mother’s lap as she watched her read over the folder, trying to see if something was different from the copy that she had, which was being mailed to her father. But that wasn’t important, what was that she finally felt like she was where she belonged and while she was in one of the many guest rooms, it felt like it was going to be her’s eventually. As she closed the draw to of one of the dressers, there was a knock at the door. Charlie looked up and saw that Jenn was standing there.

“I still can’t believe that this is happening,” she said to her as she walked in, still giddy from meeting her idol. They briefly stopped at her house, allowing her to get a change of clothes and then hurried back to their hide away in the hills to keep it from turning back into one. “It’s like a dream.” Charlie blushed a bit and sat next to Jenn. “I still feel like I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be a dream,” Charile said. “But I know that it’s not. It feels real.” She then fell silent and looked at Jenn.

“Can I ask you something,” Charlie asked as she took Wade, the stuffed whale that Taylor had given her, in her arms. “Do you think that I’m crazy for thinking that I should tell my dad that I don’t want to live with him anymore? I mean I was thinking about coming to live with you and your parents for some time now, but now that I have a mom, I think it’s better than I come here.” Jenn looked at her and smiled. “A bit,” she said. “I mean I understand that you aren’t happy there, but I can’t make that choice for you. You have to make it yourself and if you feel that you don’t want to be there anymore, then you don’t have to.” Charlie looked at her and sighed a bit. It was a tough choice.

“I know,” Charlie told her. “But it just feels right and I overheard her talking to her father before we left. She made my dad signed some kind of document that allows me to choose who I want to live with when I turned fifteen.” Jenn looked at her and sighed.

“Let’s hope that it still holds,” she said. “My father says that stuff like that isn’t ironclad all the time, unless there are two copies.” Charlie smiled. “Taylor said that she was sending a copy to her dad and then I took my father’s when we left. So things are gonna work out.” Jenn pouted a bit. “We’ll still be friends, right,” she asked. Charlie pushed her away jokingly. “Of course dummy,” she said. “Just because my mom is famous doesn’t mean I’m not going to be friends with you. We’ll be like my mom and Abigail. She never ditched her when she got famous.” Jenn hugged her when she heard that. As she broke the hug, she heard her phone ding. “Probably your mom wondering where we are,” she said. “Tell her we’ll be right down.”

As Charlie looked at her phone, she saw that it wasn’t from her mother, but her father. She panicked as she unlocked her phone and saw a picture of her and Taylor as they were walking out of Whole Foods.  
You’re in deep shit Charlotte, her father said in text. I’m on my way back and when I get out there, I’m coming to get you and you’ll never see her again. I don’t know how she founded you or how you got to her  
house but by the time I’m done, you’ll never see her again.

As she finished reading the text, she started to cry loudly, echoing throughout the house. As she was about to curl into the fetal position, Taylor came in to see what was wrong. She quickly ran over to her climbed onto the bed next to her. “Honey,” she said with concern in her voice. “What’s wrong?” Charlie didn’t answer and just showed Taylor her phone. As she read the text, she lied down next to Charlie.

“He is not coming to get you,” she said. “He will not take you away. My father and my lawyer are going to be here shortly. Karlie is taking Jenn out for a few hours with and we’re going to do something about this. Even if it means that I have to call someone to help.” She kissed her on the cheek and then got up. “When you’re ready, we’ll be waiting for you.” Taylor then left Charlie alone, closing the door behind her. As soon as the door closed, Charlie started to cry and eventually feel a sleep, a habit that she developed over the years as a comfort device to escape what her father was doing for her. After a few minutes, she slowly got up, wiping her tears away. As she sat up, she saw that there was a note on the table that was beside her bed. She picked up and started to read it.  
\- - - -  
Charile,

My father and my Lawyer, John, are going to be downstairs waiting for you. When you’re ready please come down. We also have a judge coming over too. He specializes in family law and is willing to hear your side of the story.

I understand that it’s going to be hard to talk about everything, but just remember, I had to go through the same thing right before I dropped my last album, so if I can do it, then you can do it. If you tell him everything, the judge will grant us a restraining order against your father for a few months until we get a court date to settle everything.  
I know you can do it, because you are a strong young lady, just like I was.

When you’re ready, just come down. I’ll give you more information when you’re ready.

Love,

Mom.  
\- - - -  
Charlie was slightly confused by this and wanted to know if her mother hand planned this or not. It seemed like she had something planned, which explains why she was so eager to get that document that her father had on his desk. While part of her didn’t want to do it, she didn’t want to go back with her father, because who knew what he would do to her when they got home. She quickly washed her face and headed down stairs to see what was going on.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm placing a trigger warning here because there's some description of abuse here. So if that ain't your cup of tea, then

As Charlie walked down the stairs that lead into the living room, she saw that there were more people sitting with Andrea and her mother. There were two men and a woman sitting in the living room with them, talking about what Taylor’s next move was going to be after all this was over and done with. As she entered the room, all of them stopped talking. One of the men shook his head in disbelief.

“My god,” he said. “She looks just like you did at that age Taylor. It’s uncanny.” Charlie looked over at her mother and blushed a little as she heard that. “That’s your grandfather, Scott,” she said. “And this is John Feldman, my lawyer and Judge Melissa Campos. She was willing to hear what happened.” Everyone smiled over at Charlie, letting her know that it was going to be OK and that she could trust them.  
“Have a seat Charlie,” John said. “We were just going over the contract that you mother and father signed after he got custody.” Charlie came over and sat in the middle of everyone. She was nervous and they could all see it. John then sat in front of her and put the contract in front of her so that she could read it.

“Now, you didn’t have to dig this out of a draw when you went back to your house to get clothes for the weekend, correct? It wasn’t in a draw or anything?” Charlie shook her head. “No,” she said. “He took it out of a draw in his desk that’s always locked about a week ago when he heard that my mother was going to be in town. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about with one of his clients or with his business partners. He wanted to call his lawyer to see if he could get somethings changed in the contract before, as he said, she contacted him about some stuff that was going to happen. He left on his desk for the past week, but never got around to calling his lawyer.” John nodded and then looked over at Scott and Taylor.

“I checked with his lawyer and he didn’t call at all,” he said. “So everything in the contract stands. If she wants to live with her mother she can, it just has to go through the court and everything will be good.” Charlie started to panic a bit as she looked over at Taylor, who reached out and touched her arm. “Everything is going to be fine,” she told her. “You’re not going anywhere.” John got up from the seat and Judge Campos sat in front of her.

“I know you’re scared,” she told Charlie. “But I do this all the time with kids just like you. So need you to answer all of my questions. Some of them will be difficult and hard to answer, but in order to understand what’s happening, I have to ask you them. Do you understand?” Charlie nodded as she looked back at Taylor who nodded at her. She was going to be there for her no matter what. “I do,” Charlie said as she started to kick her legs a bit.

Judge Campos smiled. “I’m going to record this too,” she told her. “It’s just for legal reasons and also for the court to see if we go to trial.” Charlie nodded. “Is my mom fine with that,” she asked causing Taylor to nod. “Of course,” she told her. “It’s fine.” Judge Campos then turned the camera on.

“Case number 44171224,” she said as she focused the camera on Charlie. “What is your full name?”

“I’m not sure,” Charlie said.

“Well… do you know what your birth certificate says?

“I only saw it once, but I think it says Charlotte Grace Davis, but my father says it’ Charlotte Marie. I think he wanted to change it, but never did.” Judge Campos nodded.

“What is your date of birth?”

“April 16th, 2003.”

“Where were you born?”

“Hendersonville, Tenn.”

“What school do you attend?”

“Campbell Hall in Studio City.”

“And what is today’s date?

“April 15th.”

“Now comes the tough stuff,” Judge Campos said. “Is your father being abusive toward you in any way, either physically or mentally?” At first, Charlie didn’t want to answer that, fearing that she would get in more trouble than she already knew she was. As she sat there, Taylor came over and put her hand on her shoulder. “It’s OK,” she told her. “You can tell them anything you want and you won’t get in trouble.” Charlie took a deep breath and nodded. Hearing that was comforting.

“Yes,” Charlie said. “Both mentally and physically.”

“Can you describe any events that you remember?”

“Yesterday, he struck me across my face because I refused to go to dinner because it was my birthday and he then picked pressed me against the wall, telling me that I have to do what he says or else I’d get a lot worse that. He eventually dropped me onto the floor after I agreed.”

“Do you remember anything else?” Charlie nodded and lifted up her shirt, showing a few scars on her back.

“This was from when he threw me across the yard when I refused to go hang out with a client’s daughter who I didn’t like. I had cuts from him doing this all over my lower back because of how I landed on the part of the yard that was being redone. When I asked him to take me to the hospital to make sure that I was fine, he told me that I would be fine and to go get cleaned up because she was going to be here any minute. I had to constantly go to the bathroom and clean up the scratches to keep my shirt from getting blood on it. There was other time where he thre me down stairs and pushed me against the glass doors of the wine cellar.”

“Now what about mental stuff,” Judge Campos ask. As she heard this, Charlie started to cry.

“He tells me all the time that I’m worthless and I’m going to be a stupid whore like my mother. He says to me all the time that I could have gotten a high grade on the test that I bring home when I got an A on it. He tells me that I’m stupid when I can’t find something that he told me to go get and he constantly tells me that I’m nothing without him.” Judge Campos stopped the camera and looked up.

“I think that I’ve heard enough,” she said as she watched Taylor get up to comfort a sobbing Charlie. “I’m signing the order of protection and will 100% set a court date. The protection will keep him from going near her at school, when she’s here with you, and also when she’s out in public. It will probably be 500 feet, but that should be enough and I’ll get another to allow her to get some things out for the few days that she’ll be staying here next week. Just make sure that you get everything that is super important out.” Taylor nodded. “We did earlier today,” she said. “We stopped by to get her a change of clothes for the weekend and I told her to get the important stuff before he tries to destroy it.” Judge Campos nodded. “That was smart,” she said as she stood up and handed her large packet of folded papers. “I’ll have an officer here tomorrow to keep him from coming anywhere near your house. Have a good night.”

She then left and John stood up. “I’ll be here tomorrow to serve him with the lawsuit and the restraining order as well. I’ll start setting up a court date as well.” Scott got up and walked John out. After everything slowed down, Taylor walked over to Charlie and hugged her.

“You did so good Charlie,” she said as she hugged her crying daughter. “Mom is so proud of you.” At first, Charlie didn’t know what she was talking about, but then things started to set in. She started to sob and leaned into her mother. Andrea then walked over and hugged her.

“You were just as brave as your mother was when she took the stand,” she said. “Maybe even braver.” Charlie looked up at her and wiped her eyes. “R- Really,” Charlie asked. “I’m not going to get in trouble?” Taylor shook her head. “No,” she said. “Not at all, you’ll probably come to live with me after everything’s over.” Charlie looked at her and started to cry again.

“I was just telling Jenn that I wanted to do that,” Charlie said as she recovered. “And now it’s going to happen.” I hugged her mother tightly and then looked up at her. As the two of them shared a moment, Scott came back in.

“Now, let me get a good look at her,” he said as he gently pulled Taylor aside, trying to get a closer look at Charlie. He smiled as he stood in front of you. “The only difference is her hair color and eye,” he said. “Other than that, she’s you.” Charlie smiled as she heard that. People had been telling her that for years, which pissed off her father often, but now, it was a welcoming comment. As they stood there, Taylor’s phone when off with Karlie’s name on the screen. “I’m going to take this,” she said to her parents who waved her off as she walked out. It seemed that they were eager to get to know their grandchild again.  
“Everything alright,” Taylor asked as she answered the phone. At first there was no answer at the other end of the phone, but then Karlie sighed. “I may have made a mistake,” Karlie said. Taylor laughed. “What did you tell everyone that Jenn is your daughter?” Karlie sighed again. “No,” she said. “That would be better than what I did. I accidently replied to a group chat when someone, I think Blake, ask who the girls that were with us when the pictures came out.” Taylor turned white as she heard that. “Karlie,” she said. “What did you say?”

“I told that that it was your daughter and her friend,” Karlie said. Taylor started to panic. “And then what happened.” Before Karlie had a chance to answer, the phone rang. Andrea walked over and answered it. “Hello,” she said and then jumped. “Taylor,” Andrea said. “It sounds like everyone’s here.” Taylor looked at the phone. “Get back here ASAP,” Taylor said. “We already are,” Karlie said. “Can you open the gate?”  
Taylor ended the phone call and looked at the iPad. Sure enough, everyone, including Karlie and Jenn, were waiting to get it. Taylor quickly walked over to Charlie. “Looks like you’re going to have an epic birthday party after all,” she said causing Charlie to look at her. “Why,” she asked. Taylor punched the code in to open the gate. “Because everyone is here,” she said. Charlie looked at the iPad and saw that multiple cars were coming in. She wanted to have a big party, but this was going to be interesting.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update will be on 9/20

Taylor started running around the house, texting caters, trying to find someone who was willing to help, but she had no luck. She was starting to panic and this was not normal for her. She was the one in her group of friends who was usually level headed and tried to organize everything, but now, that wasn’t the case.

Thanks to Karlie and her innocent text reply to a group text, this party was happening even if she didn’t want it to. “Call someone mom,” Taylor said as she saw Andrea looking for a place to call on her phone. “I know that it’s going to be short notice, but someone will do it.” Taylor was starting to panic as she went upstairs to change into something a bit better suited for the party than the t-shirt and jeans that she was wearing. This was happening so fast that she turned and grabbed Charlie by the arm. There had to be something in her closet for her to wear besides the uniform that she was still wearing. She sighed as she led her up the stairs.

What was supposed to be just a girl’s night had turned into more thanks to Karlie and her accidental reply. Taylor pulled out her phone and discovered that it wasn’t as accidental as it seemed. She read the text and after the blab, she tried to recover and said that Charlie just wanted a small party, but really wanted everyone to come and of course, everyone happened to be on the west coast, which is something that never happens ever.

As Taylor looked up from her phone she saw that Charlie had slipped out of her grip and had found a chair to sit in and calm down, hugging her legs. Taylor walked over and smiled at her, assuring her that everything was fine.

“Nervous,” she asked. Charlie nodded. “I’ve… I’ve never really met so many famous people in one day,” Charlie said, hugging her legs a bit tighter. “Well you’re going to be fine,” Taylor told her. “Everyone seems excited to meet you and in fact they all ran out and got things. I know what, but I’m not going to say.” Charlie looked at her and smiled. “They didn’t have to do that,” Charlie said. “All I wanted was just me and you, but this is better than I thought it would be.”

Charlie started to smile as Andrea came to the top of the stairs. “I found a place that’s willing to do the catering,” she said. “They’ll have everything here in an hour.” Taylor nodded and then smiled as she heard the door open. “Alright,” she said to Charlie. "It's gonna be crazy for a bit, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly. Ready.” Before she had a chance to answer, the doorbell rang. “Oh and go get out of the uniform. You did bring something that a bit dressier, right?”

Charlie looked down and realized that she was still in her uniform. She had put it back on by accident when they went out after she got out of the pool and never realized it. She nodded and stood up to walk to the room that she was staying in. “Anything you want to see me in,” she asked. “That sundress that you grabbed,” Taylor said. “I think that would work. As she went to into the room, Andrea grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.

“I was going to give this to you later,” she said. “But I think that it will suit you better now and will look a lot better than that sundress that you want to wear.” She pulled a bag from behind her back. “Happy birthday, dear.” Charlie looked at the bag and opened it right away. Inside was something better than a sun dress, it was an actual dress that she hand fallen in love with a few weeks ago, but her father said that it was too old for her.

“I saw this in Nordstrom a few weeks ago,” she said still in shock. “I wanted, but my father said that it was too old for me.” Taylor rolled her eyes and smiled. “Go put it on and get the black flats from my closet. If you can’t find them… grandma…” Andrea then cleared her throat. “Right… Andrea will help you find them.” Taylor forgot that her mother wanted to be called by her first name, which was a little strange, but she went with it. “Now go,” Taylor said. “I don’t think that Karlie can hold them off any longer.” Charlie and Andrea then headed upstairs and someone knocked on the door.

Taylor then ducked into one of the guest rooms and pulled out a purple dress and then put it back. “Too Speak Now and not right now,” she said to herself as she spotted that dress that brought in Nashville last week. “You’ll do,” she said as she got changed and then slipped into black heels.

She then walked down the stairs and walked over and took a deep breath, opening the door. Before she had a chance to say hello to anyone, she was pushed out of the way and almost knocked onto her butt.

“Where is she,” Gigi Hadid said as she pushed Taylor out of way, carrying a stack of boxes of assorted sizes. “I still don’t believe that she’s real.” Gigi was one of the few that knew about Charlie, but she didn’t believe that she was real. Before she could say something, Ruby Rose walked in carrying a large box. “Yeah Tay,” Ruby said. “Where is she or are you trying to hide her from the truth, trying to make yourself seem normal.” Taylor tried to answer again, but before she could, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds walked in, carrying two boxes. “Seriously Tay,” Blake said. “I think we might have found a baby sitter for date nights.” Hearing that caused Ryan to smile. “For once James and Inez will have someone else to annoy and play dress up with.” Everyone laughed as they heard this, even Taylor, but before she finally had the chance to finally get a word in, Emma Stone walked in, who Taylor wasn’t expecting at all. “She has to be real,” she said as she dropped two big bags down. “There are pictures of her and Taylor all over the place.” Taylor blushed as finally someone gushed over Charlie and wanted to meet her. She tried on last time to get a word in and then Hailee walked in, carrying a massive box. “So you weren’t lying about her,” she asked. “She actually real.” Taylor finally cleared her throat as Karlie and Jenn walked in. She finally got everyone’s attention.

“Alright,” Taylor said. “First, yes she’s real. Her jerk of a father just kept her away from me for the past fifteen years. Second, she knows that I’m famous and wants to meet everyone, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon and finally, Blake and Ryan, we’ll talk about that when the time comes.” Everyone started to laugh again as Andrea tapped her on the shoulder. “She’s ready,” Andrea said. Everyone then turned their attention toward the stairs.

As Charlie came down the steps wearing the dress that she had just gotten, she didn’t believe what she was seeing. Standing in front of her was all of her mother’s most famous stands. She didn’t believe it. As she reached the bottom step, she actually could see who was here. Gigi Hadid was standing at the back with her mouth agape, not believing that she was seeing. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds just looked at each other and Hailee Steinfeld was just smiling and trying not to laugh at the fact that this was really happening. Charlie managed to hold her composure, but as she looked at the back for the room and saw Emma Stone was standing there, waving at her, she started to lose it.

The next thing that Charlie knew was that she started to see the ceiling for some odd reason before she blacked out.


	17. Chapter 17

“Has she ever done this before,” Taylor asked Jenn as Charlie started to come back after she passed out, slowly realizing that this wasn’t a dream and that she was in the same room as all the famous people that she admired and actually wanted to hang out with were actually here, looking to make sure that she was OK.

“No,” Jenn said with a bit of concern in her voice. “Well maybe once after she was overheated during a field hockey game, but that was a different story. This is something new.” Charlie came to and tried to focus her eyes. She saw that Jenn and her mother were standing over top of her and everyone else was looking on, wondering what had just happened, as if they never had seen someone faint from stress before. Taylor had managed to catch her before she hit the floor and saved her from taking a trip to the ER, which was the best thing that happened to her all night besides getting the dress that she wanted.  
As she sat up looked around, she realized that everything that had happened wasn’t a dream. It was all real and Taylor Swift was really her mother. “Are you alright,” Taylor asked. Charlie nodded. She was still a bit lightheaded, but didn’t understand why.

“I’m fine,” she said. “What happened? Did I pass out or something?” Taylor helped her to her feet and made sure that she was actually alright, which she was thankfully. “You did pass out,” Taylor said. “As soon as your feet hit the ground, you were going down even if you didn’t want to.” Charlie blushed a little, this was embarrassing for everyone, even more so for herself. As she turned around she saw that everyone that she thought that she was seeing earlier where actually here too. She a bit embarrassed to say the least.

“Are you all here for me,” she asked as she watched everyone nod. Charlie understood why she fainted. She was overwhelmed by the turnout for her birthday. This was unreal and as she stood there, Jenn, who it seemed had changed earlier when she and Karlie went out, tapped her on the shoulder. “A word,” she whispered. “Right now. I think you need a second to collect your thoughts and other things.” Charlie nodded and looked back at everyone, but before she could say a word, Taylor motioned to her to go, assuring her that everything was alright. “We’ll be right back,” she said to the group of famous people. She walked outside with Jenn and looked at her.

“Are you OK,” Jenn asked as she shut the door to a massive closet that was clearly used to store something at one point. Jenn quickly found the light and pulled the cord, turning it on so that the both of them could see. “You’ve done that once before after you showed up at my house after a fight with your father.” Charlie nodded. She remembered when that happened. A year ago, she and her dad had a fight over the fact that she was going to go to a sleep over when he was trying to get Dakota Fanning to commit to a deal that would make him so major money and she called Jenn as she hid from him. She had only seen that side of him a few times, but this was the worst that she had ever seen. She didn’t even wanna be there and as she packed a bag to escape, he found her and beat her so bad that as she ran out of the house, she almost fell over, but the adrenaline kept her going and as soon as she was safe at Jenn’s she passed out., which caused both Jenn and her parents to worry about her mental wellbeing. “I’m fine,” Charlie said. “I think it was related to what happened while you were gone.”

Jenn looked at her friend and then sat down at the table that was near the edge of the patio. “What happened,” she asked. Charlie sat down with her friend and sighed. “I got a text message from my dad right before…” Charlie got quiet and looked up at Jenn. “Right before the questioning started.” Jenn looked at her. She was slightly confused, but somewhat knew where this was going and then Charlie knew that she had to tell her friend the news that she wanted to tell her later after everyone left.

“When my mother had to hand me over to my father, they signed a contract that said that I could move in with her when I turned fifteen,” Charlie started. “If I wanted to that was and after she saw all the pictured and the stories that I told the judge and he lawyer, she’s starting the process and also getting an order of protection to keep my father from trying to take me away.”  
Jenn looked at her and then start to smile. She jumped up and hugged her friend. “You do realize that this is the best thing that could happen to you, right,” she asked. Charlie looked at her like she was crazy. “You’ve had a shit childhood and now, you’re gonna have some of the best years of your life.” As she said that, it started to sink in. Jenn was right. The past fourteen years were a mess of nothing but abuse, mockery and being in a state of never having a stable place to call home. But now, as she was about to turn fifteen, things started to look up.

Charlie hugged Jenn back. “You’re right,” she said as she teared up a bit. “Things are going to get better and finding out that I have a mother was the start to a better life.” As the broke their embrace, Taylor stuck her head out the door.

“Everything alright,” she asked. Charlie nodded. “Everything’s fine,” she said. “I just told Jenn what’s happening.” Taylor smiled. “Well I’m sure that you have a lot to tell her, but you should really come back inside. Everyone is questioning me and I really can’t answer most of them.” Charlie looked at Jenn and she smiled.

“Don’t worry,” Jenn said. “I’ve got your back and I’ll catch you if you faint again.” Charlie laughed and then got up. She grabbed Jenn and headed back inside.


	18. Chapter 18

An hour later, Charlie stepped outside of some air and also to process what had just happened and what was going. She looked back and saw that Jenn was having the time of her life and was enjoying herself more that she was it seemed since she was holding court with Emma and Hailee, everything was going well for her.

Charlie was overwhelmed in the best way possible. She was the center of attention and was really enjoying it and everyone was actually nice to her, including Gigi, who as her mother said, would seem cold at first, but in reality, she was just really shy and took some time to warm up to new people that she was introduced to.

She walked over to the pool and dipped her legs in, enjoying the feel of cool water on them, soothing them a bit. She wasn’t one for dress shoes, but tonight she made an exception for her party. Everyone loved her just like her mother assured her they would and they were even more welcoming than she ever thought they could be.

Blake doted over her, telling her how much she actually looked like her mother, but with brown hair, and Ryan said that ‘they finally found a baby sitter,’ which caused both Blake and her both to roll their eyes, both knowing that this was not going to happen, unless her mother forced her to that was. Hailee kept saying that she couldn’t believe that she was real and kept apologizing to Taylor over and over again for doubting her, which Charlie forgave her for before getting a big hug from her, which surprised her even more and even Emma Stone was awesome and the two of them didn’t stop laughing for 10 minutes at Charlie telling her that she loved her in Superbad, a movie that Emma said that she should be watching yet.

While it was turning out to be a good party, there was one thing missing. Selena Gomez never showed up, which bummed Charlie and Jenn out mainly because she was the one that they were really looking forward to meeting. After all, they did spend three hours in line the last time she was on tour, trying to get as close to the stage as possible, but failed horrible and had to stand all in the way in the back of the GA pit, but it was so worth it because of the show that she put on that night and while they were passed up to go backstage for a meet and greet, tonight would have made everything better.

Over the years, she had seen so many pictures of them together that they reminded her of the relationship that she and Jenn had and it seemed that no matter what happened, they were there for each other no matter how major the event was, even if it was some of the worst times of your life. Jenn was the Selena to her literal Taylor.

Charlie sighed as she thought about this. She overheard mother and Karlie talking shortly before she stepped outside. “Did you call her,” Karlie asked as she looked at her phone. “I know that she saw the group text, but she never replied. “ Taylor nodded. “Three times,” she said. “She has to be with Amy or T doing something or with one of those weird church friends of her’s, that’s then only reason why she isn’t answering.” Karlie sighed. “Maybe she saw the message and is rushing over right now,” Karlie said. Taylor shook her head. “You know her,” Taylor said. “She’ll see this message in three days and the call apologizing and show up without even calling.” Karlie laughed. “Typical Selena,” she said as she shook her head. “Watch she shows up tonight because she saw our calls and messages at the last minute.” Taylor rolled her eyes as Charlie slipped out the back door.

As Charlie took kicked her legs in the pool and let the water soothe them, something that was desperately needed, she heard someone walking across the lawn, as if they were lost. “Taylor,” the person said causing her to turn around and looked back. “What are you doing out here and when did you dye your hair. I know that you said that you were going to audition for a movie, but this is a little much.”

As Charlie’s eyes adjusted to darkness, she was shocked to see that Selena Gomez was coming in the back. Charlie was confused, but then realized what had happened. Her mother must have seen her sneak out the back and as she exited Selena rang the gate and her mother told her that she would meet her back by the pool. Charlie didn’t answer her because she didn’t know what to say, she was in a bit of shock after all. Selena was one of her favorite celebrities and right now, she was trying to keep from freaking out. If she had her phone, she would have texted Jenn. But she then realized that doing this might end with all of them in the pool, which would have been a bad thing for everyone.

Selena walked over, took her shoes off and sat next to Charlie putting her feet in the pool. “I left as soon as I saw the message,” she said as she lowered herself onto the ledge, sitting next to who she thought was Taylor. “I sent the gift through the front door. I hope that she doesn’t have what I got her yet.” Charlie didn’t answer her, she didn’t know what to say or if it was smart to play along. But then a playful shove came from Selena and she laughed. “What’s the matter,” she joked. “Cat got your tongue.” Charlie looked over at Selena, causing her to a double take. She didn’t realize what she was seeing.

“Wait…” Selena said confused. “You’re not Taylor?” At this point, Selena reached for her phone and turned her flashlight on so that she could see better in the dark. As she shined the light on Charlie, she slowly realized that she wasn’t sitting next to Taylor, but a younger clone. “Who are you?” Before she had a chance to answer, Taylor cleared her throat, causing both Charlie and Selena to jump and then look back.

“So… I guess that you met Charlie already huh Selena,” Taylor asked with a bit of a laugh. “Turn off the flashlight and come over the pool house. You’ll see things better there.” Taylor helped the both of them up and led them over to the pool house. This was part of the grand plan that she had. Selena was the first person that she told about Charile and like everyone else didn’t believe her that she was real. But now it seemed that she too was going to be one of the believers like everyone else who was here tonight.

Taylor turned the light on and led Charlie and Selena inside the pool house, which she had converted into a reading room that did have a TV that was barely used because all Taylor did in here was read or write. But now, it was going to serve as a meeting room. As Taylor closed the door, Selena got confused. As she looked across the room, she saw two Taylors standing across from her, but the only difference was that the younger one’s hair was a light brown. As she stood there, something that Taylor had told her years ago started to resurface. She then started to laugh as Charlie looked over at her.

“Wait,” Selena said. “Is that…” Taylor nodded as Selena sat down on one of the couches that were in the pool house. “You mean she’s real?” Taylor had told Selena about Charlie when she caught her writing a birthday note to her and when she tried to explain everything, Selena laughed and called out on everything, which started everything that led up to Reputation, but now it seemed like that everything was about to change.

“She’s real alright,” Taylor said as she sat down next to Selena. “And she’s been dying to meet you.” Selena looked over at Charlie and then back at Taylor. She couldn’t wrap her head around Taylor, the globetrotting pop star, being a teenage mom. “So…” Selena started as she blushed a bit. “Did you go look for her or did she come find you?” Taylor rolled her eyes, but Charlie raised her hand and offered to explain.

“I went to find her,” Charlie said. “At the suggestion of a friend and I’m glad I did because now, I won’t have to deal with my father anymore.” Selena looked at Taylor, who shook her head. “You’ll meet her later,” Taylor told Selena causing Charlie to laugh. “Jenn might pass out because she’s your self-proclaimed biggest fan.” Selena laughed. “Well I’ll try to catch her if she faints,” she said. “I think you might have to brace for impact,” Charlie said. “Because she will tackle your ass and take you down.” The three of them laughed. Taylor’s phone buzzed.

“My mom says the food’s here,” she said. “Selena, you go ahead of us. I need to talk to Charlie for a minute.” Selena looked at Taylor, but just shrugged off what she said. It was a mother/daughter conversation. She walked over and hugged Charlie. “I’m sorry that I didn’t believe that you were real,” she said. Charlie hugged her back. “It’s fine,” Charlie said. “No one thought that I was real, but I am.” Selena laughed as she walked out and headed toward the main house.

As soon as she was out of the pool house, Taylor turned toward Charlie, looking serious. “Your father is on his way over,” she said. “He got some kind of court order that might let him take you way, but I don’t think that it will hold up. John is already here and is looking over the order. But don’t worry about that now. Go and have a good time.” Charlie wanted to cry, but she managed to compose herself. “OK,” she said and head back to the party.

As she neared the house, she stopped dead in her tracks. As she looked into the house, she saw that her father was arguing with Scott and Andrea. She panicked and ran back into the pool house, pushing Taylor back in as entered.

“He’s here,” she said with tears in her eyes.


End file.
